
Class _2 ■ 



Book 



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Copyright N c 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



YALE STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
ALBERT S. COOK, Editor 



XI 



A STUDY IN EPIC DEVELOPMENT 



. 



IRENE T. MYERS, Ph.D. 



NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1901 



OF 
Two Cones Received 

Copyngrit Entry 
CLASS Ct- XXo.No. 

x / -> n / 

COPY A. 



PK\\302> 

CO toy Z 



Copyright, 1901 

by 
Irene T. Myers 



TO 
ELISABETH WOODBRIDGE MORRIS 



PREFACE 



It is hoped that the title of the thesis here presented — A 
Study in Epic Development — will suggest, what the pages 
which follow make clear, that a very small portion has 
been examined of what is implied in a study of epic devel- 
opment. I have dealt only with certain of the popular, or 
semi-popular, epic manifestations, and have tried to corre- 
late and to bring under one view dissociated facts that 
have to do with early epic production ; and, since the people 
who were evolving certain forms in their orally transmitted 
narrative were at the same time evolving certain forms 
in their government, the relation existing between the 
literature and the contemporary political organization has 
been emphasized. The material which has been brought 
together as illustrative has been selected because of its 
representative character, and in the greater number of 
cases may be indefinitely supplemented. 

It is not necessary, I know, to call attention to the fact 
that the result attained has been in many ways unsatis- 
factory ; the variety of the material demands a practised 
hand for its arrangement, and I hope that a deeper philos- 
ophy than mine will yet show the informing spirit which 
makes the epic throughout its development essentially one. 
The work has been done only by way of beginning a study 
of the epic ; it is the result of my effort to find a starting- 
place ; and notwithstanding its deficiencies, it may sim- 
plify the struggles of the student who would see this form 
of literature as a whole. Whether or not this is the case 
must be left for others to determine. 

I. T. M. 
Boston, October, iqoi. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

I . The Theory of Epic Poetry 9 

Greek 9 

Roman 1 1 

Medieval 12 

iv. Italian 15 

v. French 20 

vi. English 24 

vii . German 27 

II. Results of the Modern Method of Criticism 32 

III. Different Phases of Epic Development 34 



CHAPTER ONE 

Early Forms of Epic Compared with the Contemporary 
Political Forms 

I. Unorganized Groups of Men: — Fuegians ; Californians ; 

Philippinos ; Veddahs ; Bushmen 41 

II. Clans: — Andamanese ; Nagas; Hottentots; Australians; 

Eskimos ; American Negroes 45 

III. Tribes: — Melanesians ; Polynesians; North American 

Indians 60 

IV. Monarchies: Dahomans; Peruvians; Mexicans 77 

Conclusion 85 



CHAPTER TWO 

Tin-: Germanic Epic and Government 

I. Early Tendencies of Germanic Race 88 

II. Incomplete Literary and Political Developments :— Goths; 
Vandals; Franks; Angles, Saxons, etc.; Lombards; 
Home-staying Germans ; Danes 89 



Contents 

PAGE 

III. Distinct National Developments 99 

i. English 99 

ii. Icelandic 101 

iii. Frankish 107 

iv. German 112 

v. French 119 

Conclusion 126 



CHAPTER THREE 

The Greek Epic 

I. Its Maturity Attested :— By Minstrel; Epithets; Religion; 

Language ; Tone of Reflection ; Home Life 128 

II. Is it Natural or Artificial? The Form of Language, 
Religion, and Political Constitution, Compared with 

that of the Iliad and the Odyssey 134 

Conclusion 146 

Bibliography 149 

Index 157 



INTRODUCTION 

I. The Theory of Epic Poetry. 

Greek. 

In the fragmentary discussion of the epic which Aristotle 
left in his Poetics he defines it as 'that poetic imitation 
which is narrative in form and employs a single metre' ; he 
tells us that 'it should have for its subject a single action, 
whole and complete, with a beginning, a middle, and an 
end' ; x that 'the beginning and the end must be capable of 
being brought within a single view' ; 2 that the characters 
celebrated should be of a lofty type, 8 and consistently pre- 
sented ; 4 that in the development both of the plot and of the 
characters the poem should present permanent truths 
rather than actual realities;"' and that its subject matter 
should deal with probable impossibilities rather than 
improbable possibilities. 

These statements are, for the most part, broad in appli- 
cation; they demand, primarily, unity in the plan of the 
poem and consistency in its development, and at the same 
time make clear that it is to be no mere reproduction of 
facts ; Aristotle recognizes a difference between nature's 
actual product and the ideal for which she strives; he 
believes that the ideal, while frequently transcending the 
actual, is but the completion of nature's intention, and that, 
as an expression of the real truth of things, it constitutes 
the material with which the poet should deal. The critic is 
not necessarily, because of these principles, to be considered 



Poetics, xxiii. 


2 II'., 


xxiv. 


3 lb., v. 


lb., xv. 


6 lb., 


ix, xv. 


"lb., xxiv. 



A Study in Epic Development 

an advocate of idealism as opposed to realism, for his real 
and his ideal may be one, but the conclusion is justifiable 
that, in his opinion, whenever the real becomes anomalous 
it ceases to be in the highest sense artistic. 

Aristotle based his judgment of poetry upon aesthetic 
grounds alone; he censured and praised with an eye to the 
artistic character of a work, and not to its ethical teaching. 
By so doing he gave substance to a theory that was directly 
opposed to the prevailing Greek conception, according to 
which the poet was an inspired teacher whose song held in 
solution a code of morals. It was the ethical idea alone 
which had been recognized by Plato, 1 who, when he reasoned 
that the influence of poetry was hurtful, considered that he 
took away from it its only excuse for existence ; he thought 
of it as a vehicle for the transmission of morality, but not 
as an artistic product which accomplished its object by 
arousing pleasure through its exquisite form. 

Both the aesthetic and the ethical conceptions of jpoetry 
were transmitted to the later generations of Greeks ; \ thus, 
according to Strabo (ist century B. C), Eratosthenes (3d 
century B. C.) had held that 'the aim of the poet always is 
to charm the mind, not to instruct' ; 2 but Strabo himself 
maintains that poetry is a kind of 'elementary philosophy' 
designed for 'pleasurable instruction'; and Plutarch, 3 in the 
same century, emphasizes its ethical purpose. He questions 
whether young men should not be debarred altogether from 
reading it, and, since this seems impossible, he contends that 
every precaution shall be taken to derive from it whatever 
'wholesome nourishment' it affords, in order to counteract 
its disturbing influence. The ethical conception seems, 
however, to have been the stronger, and in the course 
of time to have been combined with the principles of Aris- 
totle which deal with poetic structure. 

i Rep., ii, 377 C, D. 

2 Strabo, i, 2, 3. Cited in Butcher's Aristotle's Theory of Poetry, 
etc., p. 214. 

3 Morals, ii, pp. 43 ff. 

10 



Introduction 

These principles had been formulated in accordance with 
the unwritten laws under which the people had developed a 
national artistic ideal. In their creations the Greek artists 
had endeavored to express the typical; while they had 
idealized, they had not been satisfied simply with the ideali- 
zation of an individual, but had sought to show in the 
individual the characteristics that were universal. At the 
same time, the types they created were preeminently human ; 
the perfection towards which they aspired was a perfected 
humanity; they developed the spiritual, but not beyond the 
possibility of expression in the material. Their sculpture, 
as well as their poetry, offers illustration of this fact. It 
was the national conception of artistic form which Aristotle 
held before him in developing his theories of poetry. 

But while there was a distinct artistic ideal which had 
been shaping through centuries, it was not universal ; we 
learn that some artists did not work towards it; that they 
proceeded by methods of which Aristotle disapproved. For 
example, Dionysius drew men true to life, while Pauson 
caricatured them, but the work of neither represented the 
highest form of art. 1 

After the time of Aristotle, as the Greek nation advanced 
towards the destruction of its social organization, it modi- 
fied, or lost, its old artistic ideal. The forms which it 
once had censured it began to regard with favor, and an 
increasing realism 2 became manifest in its poetry ; the indi- 
vidual — his interests, his personal feelings and experi- 
ences — was substituted for the universal significance and 
general interest of the type. 

Roman. 

The characteristics of the art of this transitional period 
among the Greeks appealed to the Roman nation, and tinge 
the precepts in which Horace reveals the status of Roman 

1 Poetics, ii. 

2 Cf. the comedy of Menander, as known through Plautus and 
Terence, with that of Aristophanes. 

ii 



A Study in Epic Development 

criticism. Nevertheless, Horace's notion of poetry indicates 
a survival of Aristotle's principles, in that he directs atten- 
tion to the aesthetic side, emphasizes the necessity of unity 
of conception 1 and consistency of character, 2 and points us 
to Homer to learn 

What numbers suit the daring bard who sings 
Embattled hosts and kings encountering kings ; 3 

but he believes that the poet must 'teach' as well as 'please,' 
must 'profit' as well as 'amuse.' 4 Not only in this but in 
another and more vital particular his teachings differ from 
those of Aristotle; for the Aristotelian 'imitation,' which 
encourages idealization, he substitutes a copy of nature 'to 
the life,' 5 and by so doing shows his sympathy with the later 
Greek tendencies. / 

The idea of imitation expressed by Horace finds exem- 
plification in the Aeneid, where the characters are Roman 
instead of universal, where the highest artistic conception 
of the poet is realized in the head of the empire, and 
biographical incidents further localize and materialize the 
conception. It finds additional exemplification in portrait 
sculpture, where the artist endeavored to reproduce exactly 
what he saw in actual existence. The effort of the Romans 
was not, like that of the earlier Greeks, to eliminate from 
the individual all save his universal traits, but to present 
him as he appeared in reality. 

Medieval. 

The Roman ideal was in its turn modified by being 
subjected to the influence of Christianity. This influence 
magnified the importance of the individual by insisting upon 
his personal responsibilities, duties, and compensations, and, 
in addition to thus increasing the Roman tendency towards 
individualism, it introduced other elements into the develop- 

1 Ars poctica, 1-25. 2 lb., 1 19-127. ' lb., 73, 74- 

'lb., 333- *IK 317, 318. 



Introduction 

ment of the artistic ideal. While by the Roman the indi- 
vidual had been viewed from the physical, the material side, 
the supreme question with the Church was how it might 
best develop the spiritual side. With its attention unwaver- 
ingly fixed upon this end, it tried all literature by the ethical 
standard only. It distrusted the fabulous accounts of the 
poets, since it did not find in them the direct incitements to 
duty which it found in the Bible and in the writings of the 
Fathers. Thus we are told by Tertullian, in the third 
century, 1 that 'the Author of truth hates all that is false. 
. . . He never will approve pretended loves, and wraths, 
and groans, and tears' ; and according to Isidore of Seville, 2 
of the sixth century, the fancies of the poets are harmful 
through their suggestiveness, and for this reason Christians 
are forbidden to read them. 

In the face of such opposition, the advocates of poetry 
endeavored to justify its existence by laying emphasis upon 
its fitness for promulgating moral principles. They saw in 
all poetry an embodiment of spiritual ideas, and, at need, 
forced upon it an allegorical interpretation. In this way 
the Aeneid became, like the Divine Comedy, a symbolic 
representation of the progress of human life. 

This allegorical method of interpretation, this refuge for 
the friends of poetry when hard pressed by the Church's 
utilitarianism, further became the means by which a species 
of idealization was substituted for the realistic 'copy' of 
Horace. The idealization was not, however, that of the 
Greeks. As has been said, they generalized the particular 
individual, but he maintained his relation to the visible 
world. In the Middle Ages the process was reversed; the 
artist started with an abstract idea which he embodied in an 
individual ; he subordinated the sensuous form to the 
spiritual content, and transferred the action to the invisible 
world. The method finds its highest illustration in the 

1 Tertullian, De spectac, xxii, xxiii. Cited by Spingarn, Literary 
Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 5. 

2 Differentiae, iii, 13, 1. Cited by Spingarn, p. 5. 

13 



A Study in Epic Development 

Divine Comedy, where, although the action belongs to the 
invisible world, the author yet maintains a unity between 
the soul's experiences in that world and the terrestrial. It 
was only a master in art who could preserve the unity 
between the thing and the meaning it conveyed, while con- 
scious that they were entirely distinct. With minds fixed 
upon the supreme importance of embodying some abstract 
idea, which perhaps could not be sensuously represented, it 
was not strange that the poets sometimes moved these 
embodiments like wooden manikins through a plot that 
symbolized a struggle between abstract ideas." It was inevit- 
able, when the patrons of poetry must force it into this 
unnatural position, that form should become of secondary 
importance ; that it should be significant only in so far as 
it rendered palatable a wholesome moral medicine. The 
consequence, as shown in methods of criticism, was that the 
aesthetic standard temporarily retired from view, and poetry 
succeeded in proportion as it incited to right living. 

By means of the allegorical method of interpretation the 
friends of poetry were able to demonstrate satisfactorily its 
value as a moral agent, and we find that in the fifteenth 
century Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini can say that the question 
is no longer, 'Is poetry to be condemned?' but, 'How are the 
poets to be used?' 1 While this result was being brought 
about, Aristotle's Poetics 2 seems to have been neglected, but 
Horace's Ars poetica z continued to be authoritative. 

1 De liberorum educatione, p. 150. Cited by Spingarn, p. 12. 

2 We owe its modern transmission to the Orientals. There was 
a version by Abu-Baschar from Syriac into Arabic, about 935, and 
two centuries later an abridged version by Averroes, which was 
translated into Latin in the thirteenth century by the German, Her- 
mann, and in the fourteenth century by the Spaniard, Mantinus. 
There was a translation by Giorgio Valla in the fifteenth century, and 
there were several versions in the early part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, but the influence of these was not manifest in critical theory 
until about the middle of the century. 

8 It is quoted in the sixth century by Isidore of Seville, in the 
twelfth by John of Salisbury, and in the fourteenth by Dante. 

14 



Introduction 

With the beginning of the sixteenth century there is a 
reaction against the theological monopolization of poetry, 
although belief in its moral purpose continues unshaken. 
Contemporary with this, Aristotle reappears as if in response 
to the demands of the time, and is found to fit satisfactorily 
into the existing conditions. He had contended that the 
province of poetry was to present life in its noblest form; 
the critical world perceived that this gave poetry, of neces- 
sity, a moral influence, even if its aim was not directly 
ethical. Moreover, in his analysis of the method by which 
poetry purified the emotions which it excited was found an 
answer to the assertion made by Plutarch, and by others 
before and after him, that it stirred the baser passions with- 
out calming them. 

The effect of the revival of Aristotle must have been, 
further, to re-direct the attention towards form, or at least 
to strengthen an already existing tendency in that direction. 

Italian. 

Vida, in his Ars poetica (circa 1520), gives no definite 
theory of either poetic function or form. He recognizes, 
however, the ethical purpose of poetry, and tells us that 
'gay description' should alternate with 'grave, instructive 
sentences,' 

That touch on life, some moral good pursue, 
And give us virtue in a transient view. 1 

He lays special emphasis upon the minutiae of composition, 
the details of invention and of arrangement and the essen- 
tials of elegant style, and his teachings accordingly bring 
into prominence the formal side of criticism. He advocates 
a strict conformity to the standards of reason 2 and a 
scrupulous imitation of nature. 3 Reason is to exclude 
chance from any part in the design of the poem, 4 and also 

'II, 278 ff. 2 II, 160-165; 445-455- 

8 II, 456. 'II, 161-165. 

15 



A Study in Epic Development 

is to limit the expression of the poet's personality and feel- 
ing. 1 Nature is to be imitated because the 'noblest poets' 
have 'owned her sovereign sway/ and it is to be done in 
accordance with certain precepts drawn chiefly from the 
study of the Aeneid. While in the Poetica there is no 
attempt to define the separate species of poetry, Vida takes 
his illustrations from epic poems, and considers the epic 
the highest form of poetic art. 2 From this time on, epic 
theory plays an important part in Italian criticism. 

Daniello (1535), in his Poetica, does not give the epic 
profound consideration, but recognizes it as a separate 
poetic species, and defines it, in accordance with the con- 
ception of Horace, as an imitation of the high deeds of 
kings and leaders. 3 That he had also felt the influence of 
Aristotle is indicated by the distinction he makes between 
the poet and the historian; the aim of both is to teach 
and to delight, but while the historian must confine himself 
to facts, the poet may add to his story whatever has the 
appearance of truth. 4 

In Scaliger (1561) this vague groping after the principles 
of Aristotle gave place to a definite statement of reverence 
for him as the master, the supreme dictator of all the arts. 5 
The reverence was felt, however, for a metamorphosed 
master, for, while poetry was to Scaliger, as it had been to 
Aristotle, an imitation of what ought to be, rather than what 
is, 6 imitation had assumed a different aspect. According 
to Scaliger, the poets, and especially Vergil, had created in 
their imitation a nature more beautiful than the reality; 
consequently, in seeking his subject-matter, the poet had 
better use the artistic imitation of Vergil as his model than 
nature itself. 7 This was the substitution of the classics for 

1 II, 445-455- 2 1, 33-35- 

3 Cf. supra, p. 12 ; note the less restricted conception of Aristotle. 
Poetics, v, xiii, xv. 

4 Poetica, pp. 41 ff ; cf. Aristotle, ix ; cf. Spingarn, p. 29. 

6 Poet., vii, ii, 1; cf. Spingarn. p. 141. 6 lb., i, 1. 

7 lb., iii, 4; cf. Spingarn, p. 134. 

16 



Introduction 

nature, and, as such, was a step beyond the position of Vida, 
where nature was yet to be imitated, although on the 
authority of the classics. Moreover, the office of reason 
was magnified beyond the conception of Vida. According 
to Scaliger, reason was to determine the norm in every 
species of literature ; it was the duty of the critic to define 
or formulate this norm, and the duty of the poet to follow it 
without deviation. 1 These principles, which were made 
applicable to poetry in general, had, of course, direct influ- 
ence upon the idea of the epic. 

Aristotle's theory of the epic was revived more specifically 
by Trissino (1563), who made unity of action the charac- 
teristic which distinguishes it from other narrative poetry. 
At the same time he condemned Boccaccio, Boiardo, and 
Ariosto, because they did not recognize the imperative 
necessity of this characteristic, and because they represented 
improbable events, and did not employ the proper metre; 2 
but he made some concession to the romantic poets in his 
conception of the extended plan and unlimited scope proper 
to an epic poem. 3 

Before this time a controversy had been inaugurated 
between the promoters of classic authority and those who 
would disregard it. Giraldi Cintio (1554) had argued 4 
that the literature of peoples who differed so essentially as 
did the Greeks and the Tuscans would naturally be different, 
and could not be equally subject to the Aristotelian rules. 
He recognized epic poetry as an imitation of illustrious 
actions, but believed that it was divided into distinct 
kinds, according as it imitated a single action of one man, 
many actions of one man, or many actions of many men. 
In the first of these he found the Aristotelian epic, in which 
it is possible to hasten at once in medias res; but the poet 
who is writing a poem of the second kind should begin at 

1 lb., iii, 11; cf. Spingarn, pp. 149 ff. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 9. * Poetica, ii, pp. 112 ff. 

* Discorso intorno al comporre dei ronumzi, i; cf. Spingarn, pp. 
113 ff. 

17 



A Study in Epic Development 

the beginning of the hero's life, and in the third he should 
begin with the most important event. In the third, which 
is the romantic epic, Cintio saw the development, in accord- 
ance with natural law, of a species which is in harmony 
with the spirit of the people among whom it was produced, 
but which, since it was unknown to Aristotle, can not be 
tried by his standards. 

To this Minturno (1564) and others responded. Min- 
turno 1 maintained that everything in art, as in nature, is 
governed by some specific law to which it must conform; 
that the fundamental requirement of epic poetry is unity 
of action, and that it is at this point that the romantic epics 
transgress. He adapted Aristotle's definition of tragedy to 
epic poetry, finding in both, as Cintio had also done, the 
purgation of pity and fear through the proper imitation of 
those emotions. 2 He limited, the length of the action to one 
year. 3 

Castelvetro (1570), contrary to Aristotle, 4 thought 5 it 
not necessary for the unity of the epic to differ from the 
unity of history, 6 but that it is desirable. He recognized 
the biographical and the romantic epic as given by Cintio, 
but considered that the poet shows his skill in proportion 
as he properly limits the action, the more perfect poem 
being that which restricts itself to a short time and to few 
places. 

Torquato Tasso (1587) brought about a reconciliation of 
the romantic idea with the classic. He does not consider 
the romanzi a separate species, to be dealt with outside of 
the general Aristotelian law. On the contrary, the authority 
of Aristotle is supreme, but the romantic poems may be made 
to conform to his principles. In his mind there is no ques- 
tion, as there was in Cintio's, as to the necessity of unity. 7 

1 Arte poetica, p. 31; cf. Spingarn, pp. 117 ff. 

2 lb., p. 9; cf. Spingarn, p. no. 

8 lb., p. 71 ; cf. Spingarn, p. 207. 

4 Cf. Poetics, ix. 6 Poetica, pp. 158 ff. 6 lb., pp. 178 ff. 

7 Discorsi dell' arte poetica, xii, p. 234; cf. Spingarn, p. 120. 

18 



Introduction 

There are two kinds of unity possible : one, that of a chem- 
ical compound; the other, that of an animal or vegetable 
organism. It is the second kind which is fitting for an epic 
poem. The structure of the classic poem is a model to be 
imitated, but the material 1 of the romantic is more delightful. 
The epic should not deal either with contemporary events or 
with those so remote that strange manners and customs must 
be introduced; it should deal with some historical event in 
the existence of a Christian nation. 2 The event should be 
historical in order that it may appear to be true; it should 
be Christian, for, by the introduction of pagan deities, the 
story becomes improbable, and, if these supernatural ele- 
ments are omitted, the poem lacks the quality of the 
marvelous ; but the theme should not be so sacred that it 
will restrict the movements of the poet's fancy. It is not 
necessary for the epic, as for the tragedy, to arouse the 
emotions of pity and fear; consequently, the heroes of the 
two kinds of poetry, although they should be of the same 
high rank, may differ in character. 3 Indeed, the hero of 
the epic is preferably a man of supreme goodness, as the 
hero of tragedy is not. A pagan hero is necessarily 
undesirable, because he lacks the essential qualification of 
piety. In harmony with these statements, Tasso thought 
that the times of Charlemagne and of Arthur furnish the 
best material for epic poems. 

It is noticeable that at this point the contention is no 
longer against the authority of Aristotle; on the contrary, 
he constitutes the supreme court of appeal for both sides in 
the controversy. To sum up, we find that by the end of 
the sixteenth century the imitation of the classics had 
become, under the leadership of Vida and Scaliger, an 
essential condition for the attainment of literary skill ; reason 
had been exalted as a judge over the works of the creative 
imagination ; Aristotle had been established as the supreme 
authority in literary criticism, and epic poems had been 
restricted within certain fixed limits. The Renaissance had 

1 lb., xii, p. 219. 2 lb., xii, p. 199. 8 Cf. Aristotle, v, xiii. 

19 



A Study in Epic Development 

placed its emphasis, as we have seen, upon the formal side 
in its epic criticism, but it had kept alive its inherited belief 
in the ethical function of poetry, and, according to the gen- 
eral Italian conception, a poem was designed for instruction 
as well as for pleasure. There were, however, critics who 
did not concur in this conception, and conspicuous among 
them was Castelvetro, who plainly states that the true 
purpose of poetry is to delight. 1 

For the two centuries following, epic theory, as formu- 
lated by the Italians, underwent few modifications at the 
hands of other European critics. 

French. 

The early French writers seem to be without distinct 
epic theory, but, in general, show that they have come under 
Italian influence. Ronsard (1572), in his preface to the 
Franciade, 2 speaks vaguely of epic poetry as fiction which 
deals with warlike achievements belonging to a somewhat 
remote past, but he restricts its action, as Minturno had 
done eighteen years earlier, to the space of one year. 8 
Vauquelin de la Fresnaye (circa 1605) acknowledges spe- 
cifically his indebtedness to Aristotle, Horace, Vida, and 
Minturno, and incorporates many of their ideas in his Art 
poetique* He conceives of the epic as 'un tableau du 
monde,' a mirror in which are reflected the deeds of mortals ; 
it contains within itself all kinds of poetry, 'Soit tragique 
ou comique, ou soit autre poeme.' 5 He also limits the 
action to one year. 6 

It was not until later in the seventeenth century that there 
was any definite formulation of epic theory in France, but 
recognition of an established form was shown in the pre- 
faces to various epics. For example, Saint-Amant calls his 
Moyse sauve (1653) a heroic idyl, because it does not come 
up to the demands of the epic; it does not celebrate an 

1 Poetica, p. 505. 2 Oeuvres, iii, p. 23. 

'lb., p. 19. 4 I, p. 63. 

Op. cit., i, pp. 471, 503. 6 Op. cit., ii, p. 253. 

20 



Introduction 

active hero, or great battles, or the besieging of cities, and 
the action lasts only one day instead of a year. Again, he 
says, that although, for the reasons given, 'he has not 
confined himself entirely to the laws governing the epic, he 
has observed the unities of place and action, which are the 
principal requirements ; and, in a manner entirely new, has 
confined his action, not only to the twenty-four hours which 
form the limit of the dramatic poem, but to scarcely more 
than half that time. It is more than Aristotle, Horace, 
Scaliger, Castelvetro, Piccolomini, or any other modern 
has ever demanded.' 1 

Rapin, in the Preface to his Reflexions sur I'art poetique 
(1674), makes it clear that up to this time the French had 
relied upon foreign criticism. He tells 2 us that 'we have 
had no books of poesy till this last age; when that of 
Aristotle, with his other works, was brought from Con- 
stantinople to Italy' ; and the list of commentators upon 
Aristotle which follows is made up almost exclusively of 
Italians. He assures us that he presents no new theory of 
poetry; 'for that of Aristotle only is to be adhered to, as 
the exactest rule for governing the wit. In effect, this 
treatise of poesy, to speak properly, is nothing else but 
nature put in method, and good sense reduced to principles.' 
Again, 'if a poem made by these rules fails of success, the 
fault lies not in the art, but in the artist.' His idea of the 
function of poetry is in accord with the prevailing Italian 
sentiment; it aims at delight, and 'omits nothing that may 
contribute thereto,' but its principal end is to 'profit.' As 
to the structure of a poem, it is only by the rules of Aristotle, 
especially those pertaining to the unities of place, time, and 
action, that it can be made 'just, proportionate and natural, 
for they are founded on good sense and sound reason, rather 
than on authority and example.' 

Boileau's Art poetique, which was published in 1674, 
expresses definitely the century's deification of reason. His 

1 Oeuvres, ii. Pref. to Moyse sauve. 

2 Critical Works, ii, pp. 131 ff. 

21 



A Study in Epic Development 

first precept is 'Aimez done raison,' 1 and naturally, follow- 
ing this, he disapproves of any excess or extravagance in 
action or expression. He tells us that nature is the embodi- 
ment of reason and truth, and counsels the poet to imitate 
nature; 2 but it is from the classics that he will best learn 
the method of imitation, for both their precepts and their 
practice are in accord with the dictates of reason; conse- 
quently, in imitating them, the poet is, at the same time, 
imitating the real nature, not something which is higher 
and better, as Scaliger had thought. 3 His position is still 
further removed from that of Vida, who would imitate 
nature on the authority of the classics; 4 Boileau would 
imitate the classics on the authority of nature and reason. 5 

His work, like that of Rapin, gives evidence of the 
increasing rigidity of the imported rules which the French 
were endeavoring to put into practical use. We are 
reminded that the 'place of action must be fixed'; that, 
while other people may present whole ages in one day's 
space, 'we, that are by reason's rule confined,' must observe 
the 'unity of action, time, and place.' 6 But Boileau gave no 
definite theory of epic structure. He thought of this form 
of poetry as a 'vaste recit d'une longue action' ; 7 where 
pagan subjects were to be preferred to Christian, 8 where the 
hero must be admirable because of virtue and courage, 9 and 
the incidents should be short, and interspersed with descrip- 
tions 10 and figures. u 

The details of epic construction are given with somewhat 
greater coherence by Le Bossu, whose Traite du poeme 
e pique was published in 1675. He is scrupulously deferen- 
tial to the authority of Aristotle, or, rather, to his idea of 
Aristotle. He tells us that, according to this authority, the 
plot should first be invented, with due regard to its prob- 
ability, and then well-known names should be given to the 

1 Art poetique, \, 37. 2 lb., ii, 10-38. 8 Cf. supra, p. 16. 

*Cf. supra, p. 16. B Cf. Spingarn, p. 135. 

8 Art poetique, iii, 38-46. 7 lb., iii, 161. 8 lb., iii, 193-245. 

8 lb., iii, 246, 247- 10 lb., iii, 257, 258. u lb., iii, 287. 

22 



Introduction 

feigned actors. 1 As to the characters, 'we may conclude 
that reason and the nature of the poem, the practice of 
Homer and the precepts of Aristotle and Horace, do all 
inform us that it is not at all necessary that the hero of 
a poem should be a good and virtuous man, and that there 
is no irregularity in making him as treacherous as Ixion, 
as unnatural as Medea, and as brutal as Achilles.' 2 With 
regard to the duration of the narrative, he inclines to the 
opinion that the practice both of Homer and of Vergil 
brings it within the compass of one year. 3 

The French had accepted, in general, the ethical concep- 
tion of poetry; accordingly, to Boileau the purpose of the 
epic was to furnish instruction, and it should do so under 
the guise of allegory. 

With these men we reach the culmination of classic theory 
in France. When Voltaire, in the next century, returns to 
the subject of the epic, we read that the rules which have 
been made serve but to hinder the progress of genius, and 
are only the feeblest of helps to those who lack ability. He 
defines the epic as 'a recital in verse of heroic adventures; 
whether the action be simple or complex; whether it be 
finished in one month, or one year, or in a longer time; 
whether the scene be laid in one place, as in the Iliad, or 
whether the hero travel from sea to sea, as in the Odyssey; 
whether he be fortunate or unfortunate; fierce as Achilles, 
or pious as Aeneas ; whether there be one principal per- 
sonage, or many; whether the action be upon the land, or 
upon the sea ; on the shore of Africa, ... in America, 
. . . in heaven, ... in hell, . . . beyond the 
limits of our world; it does not matter; the poem will 
always be an epic poem.' . . . 4 

1 Traite du poeme epique, i, chap, xiii ; cf. Aristotle, ix, xvii. 

2 lb., iv, chap. v. 

" lb., iii, chap. xii. 

4 Oeuvres, x, La Henriade, pp. 335 ff. 



23 



A Study in Epic Development 

English. 

The English criticism of the epic, like the French, receives 
its first impetus from the Italians. Their influence is 
noticeable in the Defense of Sidney 1 published in 1595; 
but the attacks of the Puritans, to which the Defense was 
a reply, were especially directed against the drama; con- 
sequently Sidney merely mentions the epic as the noblest 
form of poetry, in that it furnishes characters especially 
worthy of imitation. 

An indication of the tendency of criticism, and at the same 
time a declaration of English independence, is found in the 
second part of Harrington's Apologie of Poetry (1591). 
The attempt is here made to show that Ariosto in his 
Orlando Furioso adhered to the classic standards, but this 
is done in deference to those critics who insist upon trying 
'heroical poems' by the 'method of Homer and the precepts 
of Aristotle' ; and, at the same time, it is said that what 'was 
commendable for Homer to write in that age, the times 
being changed, would be thought otherwise now.' 2 But 
while this indicates a restlessness under established authority, 
the English critics did not revolt against it. They knew 
and accepted the standards of the Italian Renaissance, hav- 
ing been brought not only under the direct Italian influence, 
but having also felt it at second hand through the writings 
of Le Bossu, Rapin, and others. Thus we find Milton in his 
tractate On Education, writing of that 'sublime art, which 
in Aristotle's Poetics, in Horace, and the Italian commen- 
taries of Castelvetro, Tasso, Mazzoni, and others, teaches 
what the laws are of a true epic poem, what of a dramatic, 
what of a lyric, what decorum is, which is the grand master- 
piece to observe.' 

It is not, however, until the publication of Addison's 
essays on Paradise Lost in the Spectator (1711-12) that 
there is any adequate treatment of the epic in English. 

1 It circulated in manuscript several years before publication. 
1 Haselwood, Ancient Critical Essays, p. 140. 

24 



Introduction 

Jonson 1 deals with it only incidentally in the discussion of 
the relative magnitudes of a dramatic and an epic plot, and 
through characters whose opinions we may infer were his 
own. 2 Blackmore, in the preface to his Prince Arthur, 
shows that in the mechanism of his poem he has followed 
closely the lines that have been laid down. He has prac- 
tically concentrated Le Bossu's idea of an epic in the 
definition which he gives, with the exception that he 'insists 
only upon the unity of action. Dryden states the claims of 
the classics to veneration, 3 but makes the imitation of nature 
the basis of all poetry. It is true that his reason for the 
imitation of nature is a variable one, sometimes seeming to 
rest upon his desire to present a hidden perfection which 
he sees lying behind the interrupted completion of nature's 
facts, 4 and again upon the authority of the 'Ancients,' whose 
rules had received no additions and needed none. 5 Dryden's 
mind was a battle-ground where independence of the rules 

1 Timber, p. 84. 

2 For example, Lovel, Act I, Sc. I, of The New Inn, says of Lord 
Beaufort : 

I waited on his studies which were right. 

He had no Arthurs, nor no Rosicleers, 

No Knights o' the Sun, nor Amadis de Gauls, 



But great Achilles, Agamemnon's acts, 
Sage Nestor's counsels, and Ulysses' slights, 
Tydides' fortitude, as Homer wrought them 
In his immortal phant'sy for examples 
Of heroic virtue. Or as Virgil, 
That master of the epic poem, limn'd 
Pious Aeneas, etc. 

8 Works xv, Essay of Dramatic Poesy, pp. 304 ff. ; cf. v, Preface 
to All for Love; vi, Preface to Troilus and Cressida, Preface to 
Secret Love, Preface to Albion and Albanius; viii, Preface to 
Cleomcnes ; xiii, Essay on Satire, pp. 15 ff. 

4 Cf . Works, ii, Dedication to the Rival Ladies, p. 132; also, xv, 
p. 302. 

B Works, ii, Def. of Essay of Dram. Poesy, p. 308. 



A Study in Epic Development 

and reverence for them kept up a continuous struggle; but 
while he epitomized the conflict of his time, he reached no 
definite conclusion, and made no advance in specific epic 
theory. 1 

In Addison English criticism had passed beyond its period 
of hesitation, and had recognized and combined its appar- 
ently conflicting" elements. Addison's judgment of Milton 
is rendered in accordance with a definite standard, but his 
method, nevertheless, differs from that method of the 
seventeenth century French critics which the English critics 
had endeavored to adopt. The French ideal was not one to 
be adjusted to the genius of a particular people or to the 
conditions of a particular time; in their view there was but 
one type of epic, the perfect type for every people and all 
time. On the other hand, there was in Addison a blending 
of sympathetic and formal criticism — a recognition of the 
fact that not even the principles of Aristotle, or the rigid 
laws which had been built up by following critics, could 
adequately cover all questions of taste. There was not so 
much the assertion, as the acknowledgment, of the right to 
independence of spirit. 

He tells us that 'Aristotle's rules for epic poetry, which 
he had drawn from his reflections upon Homer, cannot be 
supposed to quadrate exactly with the heroic poems which 
had been made since that time,' but he makes the general 
precepts of Aristotle the foundation of his standard of 
criticism. He recognizes Horace, Longinus, Le Bossu, 
Boileau, and others as contributors to poetic theory, although 
he does not find in such contributions invariable rules. This 
is indicated by his genial remark that, since a large part of 
Milton's story 'was transacted in regions that lie out of the 
reach of the sun and the sphere of day,' he cannot gratify 
his readers with a calculation as to the length of time con- 
sumed in the action. 2 The work of Addison gives evidence 

1 Cf. Works, v, Apology for Heroic Poetry and Poetic License, 
pp. in ff. 

2 Addison on Paradise Lost, p. 6. 

26 



Introduction 

of a broadening vision which was looking for underlying 
principles of universal application, instead of specific, and, 
from their nature, limited, rules ; and in this characteristic 
he is most truly Aristotelian. 

Dr. Johnson, in his treatment of the epic, transmits a 
strictly classical criticism. He measures the Paradise Lost 
by 'established standards,' and finds it in accord with them 
so far as its structure is concerned, but defective when its 
subject-matter is considered. At the same time, the spirit 
of independence which was noticeable in Addison was not 
absent in Johnson. We find that notwithstanding he was 
zealous to uphold the 'indispensable laws of Aristotelian 
criticism,' 1 he would not have Milton's work other than it 
is, even though it fail to accord with those laws, 2 and, in 
a more general discussion of the canons of criticism, he tells 
us that 'it ought to be the first endeavor of a writer to 
distinguish nature from custom, or that which is established 
because it is right from that which is right only because 
it is established.' 3 The classic school in England, of which 
he was a representative, while insisting upon the maintenance 
of an absolute standard, did not hesitate to express delight 
in the work of those who, like Dryden, followed the rules 
at a distance. 4 



German. 

Outside of the field of formal criticism there were influ- 
ences at work which were felt in the later treatment of the 
epic. The application by Addison, and other critics of his 
age, of contemporary philosophical methods to aesthetic 
theories, 5 foreshadows the adoption in the nineteenth century 
of a revolutionary method of epic study. Its results are 
most clearly manifest in the work of the Germans, where, 
in the latter half of the eighteenth and in the nineteenth 

1 Rambler, no. 139. 2 Lives, i, p. 202. 'Rambler, no. 156. 

4 Works, vii. Pref. to Don Sebastian, p. 313. 
8 Cf. Spectator, nos. 411-421. 

27 



A Study in Epic Development 

century, we find that criticism has put aside the discussion 
of poetic function and the analysis of structure, and has 
devoted itself to defining more clearly the poetic species, 
and to determining, by means of psychological and histori- 
cal investigation, the processes by which they develop. 

Before that time, German criticism had lacked vigor and 
originality. The influence of Minturno, Scaliger, and other 
Italians had been acknowledged by Fabricius in his De re 
poetica (1584). The work of Opitz (1624), 1 which fur- 
nished the first systematic treatment of poetry, relied 
especially upon Ronsard and Heinsius. 2 Gottsched, in his 
Kritische Dicht-Kunst (1730), turned to the later French 
criticism, as represented by Le Bossu and Boileau. His 
rules for the construction of a tragic plot are those of 
Le Bossu 3 for the epic plot. His especial aim was to develop 
a German drama, and with him, as with the other critics 
of the time, the epic was only incidentally mentioned. But 
the conception of it as a species of literature was necessarily 
changing, as the conception of the relation existing between 
the ancients and the moderns was changing; that the idea 
of their divergence was giving place to a sense of their 
connection was apparent in the opposition to Gottsched. 
This opposition was led (1740) by Bodmer 4 and Breitinger, 5 
who advocated a direct return to the classic methods, and 
who yet saw between Homer and the moderns, as repre- 
sented by Milton and Ariosto, an underlying unity. 6 

The Paradise Lost of Milton, in which England had found 
united so many elements which entered into her literary 
development, became a centre of criticism in Germany as in 
England ; in both countries it appealed to the characteristic 
thought of the period, which, as has been said, was making 
an effort to disclose the common philosophical basis upon 

1 Buck von der deutschen Poeterei. 

2 De tragoediae constitutione (1611), and edition of Aristotle's 
Poetics. 

8 Cf. supra, p. 22. 4 Cf. Vom Wundcrbaren in der Poesie. 

B Cf. Kritische Dicht-Kunst. , 6 Cf. Bosanquet, op. cit., p. 214. 

28 



Introduction 

which the work of the ancients and that of the moderns was 
founded. It appealed especially to Lessing, and in his 
judgment was second only to the Homeric epics. 1 But the 
criticism of Lessing did not deal especially with the epic, 
although the general conclusions which he draws in the 
Laokoon apply to it in common with other forms of poetry. 
The definition 2 of poetry given there, as a progressive 
imitation of action, might be construed, as it was by Herder, 3 
to exclude all poetic forms except epic and drama. Lessing' s 
conclusion that this imitation permits the poet to deal with 
only one property of his subject at a time is especially 
directed against elaborate descriptions, and is in direct 
opposition to the romantic tendency which was then gain- 
ing ground. 

The criticism of Lessing led a revolt against French 
criticism, but not against the principles of Aristotle, whose 
Poetics he considered as 'infallible as the elements of Euclid/ 
His effort was to clear the Poetics from the additions and 
arbitrary interpretations from which it had suffered, to 
perfect and purify classic criticism rather than to destroy 
it. His attitude towards law was one of reverence for the 
spirit instead of for the letter, and his conception of it was 
that of an 'inner, molding power,' instead of an 'outside, 
restraining force.' 4 He endeavored to make clear that 
underlying the work of the ancients and the moderns was a 
common principle, which found different expression because 
of the different material with which it worked. 5 

Herder, who like Lessing was influenced by the desire to 
develop a great national literature in Germany, advanced 
from a different standpoint. He magnified the national 
characteristics, 6 and emphasized the importance of adhering 
to a national type. This naturally involved, for the Germans, 

1 Laokoon, chap. xiv. 2 lb., chap. xvi. 

8 Kritische W'dlder, i, 16, 17, 18. 

4 Wylie, Evolution of English Criticism, p. 26. 

5 Ham. Dram., July 3, 1769. 

8 Werke, iii, 2, Shakespear, p. 230. 

29 



A Study in Epic Development 

a study of the early form of their own literature, in which 
Herder found the real, spontaneous expression of the 
national spirit. He applied the historic method to the study 
of literature, as it had previously been applied by Winckel- 
mann 1 to the study of art, and this method was directly 
influential in extending the field of epic criticism. Further, 
his emphasis of the distinction 2 between the folk-song, in 
which the spirit of the nation finds expression, and artificial 
poetry, in which are expressed the feelings and ideas of 
the individual, was fruitful in suggestion to the investigators 
of epic development. 

It found a modified reproduction in Schiller's division of 
poetry into the Naive and the Sentimentalische? The 
Naive, whether the product of ancient or of modern, repro- 
duces nature at first hand ; the poet is so much at one with 
nature that his work is the direct reflection of it. The 
Sentimentalische reproduces nature through the understand- 
ing of the poet. A poem of one kind is not to be compared 
with one of the other as though they belonged to the same 
order, but only in so far as we deal with a principle that is 
common to both. 4 

Schiller's direct treatment of the epic is to be found in 
his correspondence with Goethe, 5 in which the effort of both 
is to discriminate between it and tragedy. Goethe says that 
neither epic nor tragedy can assume anything exclusively to 
itself; they are both 'subject to general laws, especially to 
the law of unity and of development' ; they treat of different 
subjects, and may both use all kinds of motives; they both 
deal with three worlds — the physical, the moral, and the 
fanciful ; but the epic poet depicts events as past, while the 
dramatic poet represents them as present; the epic poet 

1 Cf. Wylie, op. cit., p. 145. 
8 Cf. Carriere, Die Poesie, pp. 173 ff. 
8 Ueber naive und sentimentalische Dichtung. 
4 lb., pp. 318-340; cf. Bosanquet, op. cit., pp. 298 ff. 
6 Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe, i, letters 399 and 
400. 

30 



Introduction 

appeals calmly to the imagination of his hearers, while the 
dramatic presents everything visibly, and keeps the senses 
of his hearers on the stretch. 

To these things Schiller agreed, and added that in viewing 
a dramatic action the imagination of the spectator loses its 
freedom, and reflection is impossible to him ; on the other 
hand, while he listens to the epic, the reverse is true. 
Schiller pursued the line of thought further; since poetry 
makes everything 'sensuously present/ it obliges the epic 
poet to make the past present, 'only the character of its 
belonging to the past must not be effaced'; again, since 
through ideality poetry makes distant all that is near, it 
obliges the dramatic poet to keep reality from forcing itself 
upon us. Tragedy, therefore, in its highest conception, 
strives to acquire an epic character, while the epic, in like 
manner, strives towards the dramatic. 

The philosophical and the historical criticism have 
developed side by side in Germany; sometimes they are 
united, as in Wackernagel's Poetik, where, basing his argu- 
ment first upon historical and then upon psychological 
investigation, he finds the order of succession in poetic 
species to be: epical-epic, lyrical-epic, epical-lyric, lyrical- 
lyric, drama. First comes an objective narrative of the 
deeds of others; then the objective development of the sub- 
jective conditions of others, and then the poet comes to the 
development of his own condition. The drama is a melting 
together of the epic and the lyric; it is epic in so far as 
not only occurrences, but feelings, lie outside of the per- 
sonality of the poet; it is lyric in so far as he is develop- 
ing the subjective conditions of another individual, into 
which he has put himself. It is epic in that occurrences did 
happen, or are thought to have happened ; it is lyric in that 
occurrences are presented with their accompanying subjec- 
tive conditions, developed moment for moment before the 
spectator. 

Then, again, the criticism may be purely historic, and in 
such investigations the workers have necessarily devoted 

3i 



A Study in Epic Development 

themselves to special fields. The application of this method 
may be said to have been started by Wolf in his Prolegomena 
(1795), and it has been continued through the nineteenth 
century, not by the Germans alone, but by other nations as 
well, until not only the Homeric epics, but the Nibelungen- 
lied, the Roland, the Beowulf, and the other literary monu- 
ments of the early life of the various peoples, have their 
especial investigators. 

II. Results of the Modern Method of Criticism. 

One result of the modern method of criticism has been 
to open an extended view of the evolution of epical material, 
and to show it at various stages of development; but the 
different conditions of the people producing it, and their 
inherent tendencies, have caused it to appear in different 
forms, and the critics are not agreed as to just what point 
it should reach in its progress before it is worthy to receive 
the name of epic, nor as to what narrative products shall be 
excluded from the epic species. For example, to Rajna the 
epic is a 'poetic narrative of memorable things'; 1 while 
Scherer, by his convenient division into the Kleine and the 
Grosse, includes practically all imaginative narrative in verse 
or prose. 2 

The broadest classification furnishes the only common 
ground for ancient and modern critics. 'Epic' is a term 
applied by them all to narrative literature, but beyond this 
there is disagreement. One thinks that its aim is to delight, 
another that it is to instruct, and yet another thinks that it 
unites both functions. As to structure, one critic demands 
unity of action, another insists upon unity of time, place, 
and action, and yet another tells us that no unity other than 
that of history is necessary. The fundamental distinction 
of the epic from other species of literature is that upon which 
they all agree — its narrative form. 

1 Le origini dell' epopea francese, p. 3. 

2 Poetik, pp. 247 ft. ; cf. also Carriere, Die Poesie, pp. 193-367. 

32 



Introduction 

The criticism of the nineteenth century, in placing itself 
upon its present basis, makes a return to the spirit of 
Aristotle's method, although it no longer accepts his authority 
without question. We find that he first traced the growth 
of the epic species psychologically and historically, and then, 
from a close study and comparison of the poems known 
to him, endeavored to deduce the principles underlying 
their development. Similarly, the dominating purpose of 
the nineteenth century critic of the epic has been, as we have 
seen, 1 to discover the underlying principles of development; 
and in order to do so he has turned, as Aristotle did, to the 
early epic monuments which meet him at the threshold of 
historical life. 

These early monuments offer opportunity for the study 
of the processes of natural growth — an opportunity not 
afforded by those epics which have been put together in 
accordance with the prescriptions of the critics. In con- 
sidering the epic, therefore, it becomes necessary to divide 
it first into a natural and an artificial product, though 
it should be kept in mind that an exact line of demarcation 
between the two cannot be drawn. 

There is, indeed, a wide difference between the Paradise 
Lost and the Beowulf ; in the one the author has taken his 
material from the written record, and has re-arranged, 
polished, and created with a consciousness of his individual 
responsibility for the perfection of his work. The other is 
a poem which belongs to the people ; its substance is rooted 
far back in their tribal history ; it has lain in their memories, 
and has become impregnated with their spirit; it is the 
embodiment of their superstitions and their beliefs, the 
representation of the conditions of their common life ; it has 
been transmitted orally, and subjected to the modifications 
incident to such transmission — to forgetfulness, false con- 
ception, and free improvisation ; it is a natural product, 
developed according to the laws that govern a natural 
growth. But there are poems which partake of the qualities 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 30 ff. 
33 



A Study in Epic Development 

both of the natural and of the artificial epic ; in which it is 
difficult or impossible to determine whether the influence of 
the individual author has prevailed in their construction, or 
whether the influence of the people has been predominant. 1 
The transition from the natural to the artificial is not sudden, 
but gradual, and the application of the terms is to different 
stages in the evolution of the same species, and not to 
totally distinct developments. 

In addition to the blending of the natural and the artificial 
elements in the same poem, we find that the existence of 
distinctly artificial creations does not necessarily imply the 
extinction of the natural, as is illustrated in the south of 
France, where the song of Roland still lingers on the lips 
of the people; 2 or in Ireland, where the peasants still chant 
the deeds of Finn and his heroes ; 3 or in Russia, where the 
legends of Platov and his Cossacks are sung by the popular 
bards. 4 / 

Notwithstanding the merging of the one form of epic into 
the other, and the frequent co-existence of a natural and an 
artificial literature among a people, the natural historically 
precedes the artificial, and we turn first to it, therefore, as 
we said above, in making a study of epic growth. 

III. Different Phases of Epic Development. 

N The investigations of Aristotle were principally concerned 

with the development of the art of poetry as a whole, but 
he made use of epic poems in illustration of his argument, 
and throughout his discussion it appears that he recognized 
in the Iliad 5 and the Odyssey 6 the climax of epic production. 
He realized that more extended stories lay behind them; 
that an artistic sense of form and proportion had eliminated 
from the finished poems a mass of stories which were not 

1 Cf. infra, pp. 61 ff., 82, 134 ff. 2 Grober, Grundriss, ii, 2, p. 2. 

8 Hull, Cuchullin Saga, Introd. 

* Waliszewski, Hist, of Russian Literature, p. 8. 

6 Poetics, xxiii. 6 lb., viii. 

34 



Introduction 

organically related to the central action. Even the measure 
in which the poems were written was to his mind justified as 
being sanctioned by long experience, which had demon- 
strated the unfitness of other measures for narrative verse. 1 

The investigations of later critics have shown that similar 
conditions preceded the appearance of other great national 
epics, and a more minute study of those conditions has 
rendered certain conclusions justifiable. For example, with 
reference to the epic hero, in the French national epic he 
is seen to approach his high eminence gradually. Hrodland, 
Count of the March of Brittany, fell with Charlemagne's 
rear-guard in an obscure mountain pass as they were 
returning from a successful expedition into Spain; but in 
the songs of the people he became the nephew of the king, 
the chief of the twelve peers, the leader in the struggle 
between paganism and Christianity, the national hero, 
embodying the French ideals. It is fair to suppose that by 
some similar process other heroes have become representa- 
tive of their nations. 

Proceeding yet further, a comparison of the literatures of 
various peoples shows that they have not developed their 
narrative material to the same degree. 

First: It has been found that not every people is able to 
produce a great national poem, although it has been in 
possession of national heroes. Among the Irish, for 
example, there are cycles of song surrounding the names of 
Finn and of Cuchullin; but the same lack of unity which 
caused the people, in their political life, to dissipate their 
energies in individual efforts, finds a parallel in the lack of 
any fast-binding unity in their songs. 

Secondly : It has not been given to every people to bring 
forward a national hero. The Bulgarians and the Servians 
have produced a great body of epic material. The poems 
of the former, as given in the Chansons populaires bulgares, 
are essentially narrative, and, in many instances, deal with a 
question of such national interest as the people's struggle 

1 lb., xxiv. 



35 



A Study in Epic Development 

for independence. As to the Servians, Dozon speaks, in 
his introduction to the Chansons, of one man who had 
recited to him more than two hundred heroic pieces. But 
neither of these peoples has a national hero. It is found 
that where a political development is lacking, as it has been 
among them, there is lacking also a centralizing figure in 
their song. 

Thirdly: There are people living under conditions of 
such a nature that they are deprived of all sense of nation- 
ality. Under such conditions the narrative songs reproduce 
those events which are most impressive in daily life. 
Examples of these songs are to be found among the Southern 
negroes, where such incidents as a steam-boat race, 1 a horse- 
race 1 , a hanging, 2 or a social party, 2 have been the subjects 
of their celebration. Again, songs of such a character 
would naturally be the product of a people which had not 
yet attained, in its development, to a consciousness of nation- 
ality, and was therefore without any material of national 
interest; we find illustration of these songs among the 
Ainus, of whom a missionary says: 3 T have seen them sit 
for an hour at a stretch, and relate in chant and song that 
which has happened to them whilst away ; where they have 
been, what they have seen, and what they have heard.' This 
even flow of narrative sweeps all manner of incident into 
its current, without reference to the relative importance of 
the event or the prominence of the actor. But degrees of 
development are apparent in this simple form of narrative 
also. It is the form in which the early history and tradi- 
tions of the tribes are presented, and these first appear 
broken and disjointed as the stories of children, 4 but gain 
coherence with the progress of the people. 

The line of continuity, which has been traced from the 
most advanced to the primitive narrative, would seem to 

1 Brown, Songs of the Slave, Lippincott's Mag., ii. 

3 Putnam's Mag., v, pp. 72 ff. 

8 Batchelor, Ainu of Japan, p. 123. 

4 Cf. infra, pp. 44, 46, 51. 

36 



Introduction 

lead back to a stage of development in which the poetic 
species are not clearly differentiated, for whenever, in early 
manifestations, the narrative can be traced to the improvisa- 
tion in which it originated, it will be found in combination 
with the lyric and dramatic species. 1 Moreover, this early 
confusion of type is not confined to the songs of the most 
primitive races; but wherever a spontaneous expression in 
song may be found, which has been improvised under the 
influence of the events that inspired it, the confusion of 
the epic, lyric, and dramatic elements will appear; 2 although 
as language develops, and expression becomes more pos- 
sible in words alone, the dramatic element may be less 
evident. The field in which epical beginnings are to be 
sought is limited only by those conditions which replace 
spontaneity by reflection, the natural, unrestrained expres- 
sion by that which is in some way modified and restrained. 
Following the line of narrative development, we find that 
it maintains an intimate relation with the political condition 
of the people. 3 The reason for this relation is clear. The 
form of the poem depends upon its content, and its content 
depends upon the thought of the people among whom it is 
produced. According as their favor is shown towards the 
universal or the local type, towards central authority or 
individual independence, the poem will celebrate those per- 
sons or events which represent these tendencies; thus the 
spirit which furnishes a national political centre will furnish 
also a central ideal or motive for the narrative poem, and 
that which, politically, finds its expression in democracy, or 
anarchy, will leave a corresponding impress upon the form 
of the poem ; the transmitted narrative, evolving, as it does, 
in connection with the national life, is an expression of the 
same spirit which finds embodiment in the political constitu- 
tion of the people. 

1 Cf. infra, pp. 43 ff., 46 ff ., 49 ff. 

2 Cf. infra, p. 56 ff., cf., in addition, such examples as Miriam's 
song of triumph, Exodus, xvi, and Mary's hymn of rejoicing, 
Luke, i. 

* Cf. supra, pp. 35 ff. 

37 



A Study in Epic Development 

The parallel between the literature and the politics may be 
clearly traced where the nation has reached an advanced 
stage of progress, and where its ideal, as expressed in both, 
has grown into distinctness of outline; but in the most 
primitive condition of the savage tribes the ideal has not 
yet indicated its character. Formlessness is apparent in 
both literature and government. By a gradual process this 
formlessness develops into definite shape, and, as its first 
roughly-defined tendencies appear, they find corresponding 
literary and political expression. 

The purpose of the present study is to follow in some of 
its phases the development of narrative literature, and to 
parallel its progress by the development of political life. 



38 



CHAPTER ONE 

Early Forms of Epic Compared with Contemporary 
Political Forms. 

The beginnings of the great epic masterpieces elude our 
direct observation. The early stages by which the Greek, 
Sanskrit, Persian, or Babylonian epics progressed towards 
the form in which they appear are lost in unhistoric time. 
But as far as we can trace these, or the later Germanic epics, 
from this direction, they give indications of preceding forms, 
so that it seems advisable to turn to the earliest conditions 
in which we can find human beings, and to study the songs 
produced under these conditions, to see whether in them 
may be found the germs from which the epic, as a distinct 
poetic species, develops. 

It is a legitimate inference that the stages of development 
exhibited by barbarous and savage people to-day corre- 
spond more or less closely with the primitive life that pre- 
ceded the civilizations in which the epics were matured. 
We know that the ancestors of civilized nations were bar- 
barous tribes, and that the epics of civilization send their 
roots back into barbarism; consequently, it is reasonable to 
conclude that the same process of development extended 
through preceding ages, and that the barbaric culture arose 
out of a ruder savagery, where epic forms existed upon a 
correspondingly lower plane. 

The following classification of the various peoples has 
been made to simplify this study of epic manifestations, but 
it is necessarily a loose one, as the transition from clan to 
tribe, and from tribe to monarchy, is gradual, and it is 



39 



A Study in Epic Development 

frequently difficult to tell under which division a particular 
people belongs. The scheme of classification is as follows: 

I. Unorganized Groups, 

II. Clans, 

III. Tribes, 

IV. Monarchies. 

The literature, or song — for they are indistinguishable in 
their earliest form — has been considered under the headings 
of improvisations, national celebrations, and popularly trans- 
mitted legends. It will readily be seen that these divisions 
are not exclusive of one another, since improvisations fre- 
quently occur in the national celebrations, and also add to 
the growth of the popularly transmitted songs; moreover, 
the songs of the national celebrations, if carefully trans- 
mitted by an especial caste, may be preserved in the form 
in w T hich they left the lips of the improvisator, but, if not 
so preserved, they take on the nature of transmitted legends. 
Notwithstanding the overlapping of the divisions, however, 
they represent distinct literary manifestations ; the improvi- 
sations being produced at all stages of primitive develop- 
ment, and showing the early confusion of the poetic species ; 
the national celebrations showing a transmitted survival 
of the confusion of poetic types through clan, tribal, and 
monarchic organizations ; and the transmitted legends, since 
they have defined their character through unrestrained 
repetition, showing the purest form of the narrative, and, 
because of their emanation from the mass of the people, 
adequately representing in their form the common artistic 
ideals. 

In the investigation of the thought and life of the least 
cultivated of savages, we meet with various difficulties: 
When we must rely upon the reports of explorers to whom 
the language of the people is unknown, the songs are of 
necessity described instead of transcribed, and the general 
conclusions of the observer frequently seem to be unjusti- 
fied by his thoroughness of research ; then, too, the reports 



40 



Early Forms of Epic 

of the missionaries, which are in many instances most valua- 
ble, must be discounted when contempt for pagan practices 
closes the eyes of the writers to the significance of the cere- 
monials; moreover, the statements of all classes of investi- 
gators must be questioned when they would read their own 
beliefs into the traditions of the people. The material 
selected for consideration in this chapter has been chosen 
with a consciousness of the objections that may be urged 
against it; but since in most instances it has been regarded 
by scientific workers as sufficiently accurate to influence 
anthropological and ethnological conclusions, it seems worth 
while to examine it, and especially to compare it with that 
which has been more satisfactorily investigated. 

I. Unorganized Groups of Men. 

i. Among the lowest of the human race are the inhabi- 
tants of Tierra del Fuego. Considered from a political stand- 
point, their rudimentary society acknowledges no chief, 1 
and the individuals enjoy perfect equality. Concerning 
the literature they have produced we know but little, and 
that little is contradictory. According to all reports they are 
fond of singing, but we are told by certain travelers that 
they are content to sing indefinitely a single word or sylla- 
ble. 2 Mr. Bridges, 3 however, who lived for years among 
them, mentions a long list of their songs ; the Loima is the 
song of a man about to avenge himself, the Tetania a song 
of mourning, the Arna is the doctor's song, the Jacous a 
song for amusement. There are, in addition, certain songs 
which he says have no definite import, that are handed down 
from father to son. They bear such names as U poush, the 
west wind, Hahnisaf, the north sky, Shucoosh, the kelp 

1 Fitzroy, Voyage of Adventure and Beagle, ii, pp. 178 ff. ; cf. 
Hyades, Bull. Soc. Anthrop., 1887, p. 335; cf. Garson, Jour. Anthrop. 
Inst., xv, pp. 141 ff. 

2 Hyades, op. cit., p. 330. 

'Manners and Customs of the Firelanders in A Voice for South 
America, xiii, pp. 207, 208. 

41 



A Study in Epic Development 

goose. This testimony, if it refers to the same tribe of 
Fuegians to which other travelers refer, shows that the 
monotonous repetition is not the measure of the Fuegian 
ability to produce song. Nevertheless, the single word 
deserves attention, since we frequently find that improvisa- 
tion is of an ejaculatory character, and is limited to a 
word. The conclusion, however, which has so often been 
reached as to the exclusively lyrical quality of such an excla- 
mation, is not imperative. The child whose first articulate 
speech is limited to a word is not necessarily expressing 
pure emotion ; proof of this is furnished by the authentic case 
of a child whose mother had held him in her arms and 
had pointed out to him the shining stars ; some days passed 
by, and one night the light within his room recalled what 
she had told him. In the 'Star! Star!' which were the 
first words he had uttered, he gave expression to a thought 
somewhat as follows: 'This is a bright star like those my 
mother showed me.' In this it is riot difficult to see a trace 
of narrative, and we are justified in assuming that a similar 
interpretation of the ejaculatory improvisation is admissible. 

2. The native inhabitants of southern California were 
politically on a like plane of development with the Fuegians. 
The missionary Baegert, 1 who wrote in the second half of 
the last century, found that they frequently spent whole 
nights in a performance which combined the dance and the 
song, but to him the one was 'inarticulate and unmeaning,' 
and the other was 'foolish irregular gesticulating and jump- 
ing/ He reports further that they were without a trace of 
religion, but Picolo 2 found that they worshiped the moon. 
The evidence of Picolo makes it seem probable that the all- 
night performance witnessed by Baegert was not without 
dramatic significance. 

There are still groups of Indians in Central California 
which remain, in a political and social condition very like 
that described by Baegert. According to Stephen Powers, 

1 Smithson. Rep., 1863-64. 

* Waitz, Anthropologic, iv, p. 250. 

42 



Early Forms of Epic 

the Nishinams probably belong to the lowest grade of 
California Indians, 1 and they celebrate several fixed dances 
which are accompanied by songs. These ceremonials, from 
the description 2 given of them, would seem to be of dramatic 
character. 

3. The fast disappearing Negritos of the Philippine 
islands are divided into unorganized, shifting groups, like 
the Fuegians and the Californians. 3 We are told that they 
combine the dance and the song in their wedding festivals, 
and also that on the night of the full moon the members of 
a family assemble about the fire, the men seize their bows and 
arrows and throw them across their shoulders, and then all 
the family join in the celebration. In the one song which 
is given — 'We are poor people, and lead a miserable life' — 
the narrative and lyrical elements are inseparable. 

The limited information we possess as to the literature of 
these Negritos would have little bearing upon the present 
discussion did it not agree, so far as it goes, with the 
information obtained concerning the songs of other peoples ; 
but since in other instances it is possible to deal also with 
several interpretations, and these are all found to contain 
elements which may be considered the germs of the narra- 
tive and the lyric species, and to be accompanied by dances 
which represent the idea of the songs, even the half inter- 
preted efforts of people upon a corresponding plane are 
worthy of attention. 

4. The wild, or forest, Veddahs 4 of Ceylon combine the 
dance and the song. In a ceremonial in which they invoke 
the spirits of their ancestors, they fix an arrow upright in 
the ground, and, dancing around it, sing: 

My departed one, my departed one, my god! 
Where art thou wandering? 

1 Tribes of California, pp. 317 ff. a lb., pp. 325 ff. 

8 Schadenburg, Zeit. filr Ethnol., xii, pp. 137 ff.; Blumentritt, 
Globus, 1881. 

4 Bailey, Trans. Ethnol. Soc. (Eng.), New Series, ii ; cf. Tcn- 
nent, Ceylon. 

43 



A Study in Epic Development 

They place food in a secluded spot and dance about it to 
the song: 

Come and partake of this ! 
Give us maintenance as you did when living ! 
Come, wheresoever you may be; on a tree, 
on a rock, in the forest — come ! 

It does not matter, for our purpose, whether these songs 
are regarded as improvisations or as fixed celebrations. 
Moreover, while the form of the translation is suspiciously 
smooth, it shows the confusion of poetic species; for 
although the prevailing tone is lyric, there is a glimpse of 
underlying narrative in the vague recognition of the wan- 
dering spirits, and the accompanying dances are evidently 
propitiatory in their character, and consequently have 
dramatic significance. 

5. The Bushmen of Africa furnish illustration not only 
of the united dance and song in their communal celebrations, 
but show also in some transmitted legends the degree 
to which they have developed their sense of form. For 
example, among their prominent mythological figures is 
Kaggen, or Cagn, the creator of all things, who seems to 
be both a human being and a locust. He threw his shoe 
into the sky and it became the moon, red because the shoe 
was dusty with the dust of his country. The moon can 
speak, because all things which belong to the locust can 
speak. Cagn enters into many contests with animals, and 
is often defeated; he fights with a cat, and the cat sings 
a song about the lynx; Cagn's wings are singed by the 
mother of the hyena, who tries to roast him; he dips his 
wings into water, and they are renewed; he fights with 
the ticks in the fleeces of his sheep; he is swallowed and 
disgorged by the 'all-devourer' ; he enters and returns 
safe from the body of a elephant ; he is killed by the thorns, 
who were then people ; the ants eat him, but his bones are 
collected, and he is revived; and so he makes his way 

44 



Early Forms of Epic 

through numerous separate incidents which are totally lack- 
ing in organic relation to one another. 

The lyrical element of these narrative fragments is pres- 
ent in the long soliloquies and conversations of the beasts; 
and the dramatic element is also unmistakable, in that the 
story-teller endeavors to impersonate each animal in turn. 1 

II. Clans. 

I. The inhabitants of the Andaman Islands give evidence 
of rudimentary political organization, 2 but, as with all the 
lowest forms of the human race, it is difficult to determine 
in what political zone to place them ; they have not entirely 
abandoned the nomadic habit, but they have also permanent 
encampments; 3 they recognize a nominal chief who organ- 
izes meetings between the different communities, but can 
neither exact obedience nor punish offenders ; 4 in their strict 
regard for the relationship of individuals, 5 they seem to 
show the beginnings of social organization; they there- 
fore fall, according to our present classification, under the 
heading of clans, as do the other peoples immediately con- 
sidered. 

The Andamanese are much given to singing, and any 
passing event, such as a successful hunt, a marriage, or the 
visit of friends, is celebrated by an entertainment in which 
all take part. Large entertainments are also organized, to 
which are invited all groups within easy distance. The sub- 
ject represented is usually some personal or clan adventure. 

1 Cf. Ratzel, Hist of Mankind, ii, pp. 262 ff. ; Lang, Myth. Ritual, 
and Religion, ii, pp. 11 ff. For further notes on the Bushmen, see 
series of articles on Die Buschmanner in Siidafrika, Globus, xviii, 
especially pp. 120 ff. and 140 ff. 

2 Man, Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xii, pp. 108 ff. 

8 lb., pp. 104 ff. * lb., p. 109. 8 lb., pp. 126 ff. 

6 lb., pp. 388 ff. ; cf. further, St. John, Trans. Ethnol. Soc. (Eng.), 
New Series, v, p. 46, and Colebrook, Asiatic Researches, iv, pp. 
391 ff. 

45 



A Study in Epic Development 

The song- is a fragmentary expression, consisting of recita- 
tive followed by a chorus. The dramatic action by which 
it is accompanied furnishes an essential stimulus to the 
imagination of the spectators; that it is essential is illus- 
trated in the following example, in which the poet would 
represent how he, unaided, made a bow : 

Leader: You did not make it; I made it. 

I, I, I made it. 
Chorus: I, I, I made it. 1 

In addition to being of a dramatic character, it is certainly 
an elementary narrative, colored by the personal feeling of 
the improvisator. 

They have also legends 2 of creation, and these at least 

1 Bucher, Arbeit und Rhythmus, p. 54. 

2 Puluga is the Creator of all things. After making the world, 
he made man — Tomo. Man was black and bearded, but much 
taller than the present Andamanese. Puluga placed him in the 
jungle, and warned him not to partake of certain fruits during the 
rains. Puluga obtained fire for him by stacking in alternate layers 
two kinds of wood, and then calling the sun to sit on the pile until 
it was ignited. He taught Tomo to cook pigs, which had in those 
days neither ears nor noses. According to some he created woman, 
according to others Tomo found her swimming near his home. 
As time went on the pigs became so numerous as to be troublesome, 
and the woman drilled holes into their heads and snouts, that they 
might avoid danger and get food for themselves. Then they became 
difficult to catch, and Puluga taught man to make bows and arrows, 
and to hunt, and afterwards to fish and to build canoes, and then, 
subsequently, the various arts that the Andamanese practise. 

Puluga sent out man's children two by two all over the country, 
and provided each with a distinct dialect. One day, while hunting, 
Tomo fell into a creek, and was drowned. He was at once changed 
into a whale. His wife and some of her grandchildren went in a 
canoe to search for him. He upset the canoe and they were 
drowned, and became crabs and iguanes. 

The descendants of Tomo, with the exception of two men and 
two women, were destroyed by a flood. According to one legend it 
came about in this way : Berebi, who was an envious man, came to 
visit Kolwot, who was the first to spear and catch turtles. When 

46 



Early Forms of Epic 

partially differentiated narrative chants are characterized by 
an incoherence somewhat less marked than that of the Bush- 
man legends. They show a greater elaboration of single 
incidents, and a more apparent chronological connection; 
but a portion of these results may be due to the unconscious 
efforts of the translator, for the accounts which he gives 
in substance appear less broken and disjointed than those 
which he renders literally. If the advance beyond the 
legends of the Bushmen is in reality less than it seems, it 
could affect our conclusions only in so far as it lowered the 
estimate we place upon the ability of the Andamanese to 
sustain a thought, for, in the material as it stands, the inci- 
dents are, as with the Bushmen, 1 without necessary con- 
nection with one another. 

2. A blending of narrative, lyric, and dramatic elements is 
found in the celebrations of the wild people of the Naga hills, 

Kolwot appeared, Berebi fastened his teeth in his arm, and was 
unable to detach them. The tradition is thus preserved: 

Bring the boat to the beach. 

I will see your fine grown-up son, 

The grown-up son who threw the youths, (This refers 

to another legend.) 
The fine grown-up son. 
My adz is rusty. I will stain my lips with his blood. 

The friends of Kolwot avenged him, and threw Berebi's body with 
his into the water. The mother of Kolwot, enraged at the loss of 
her son, committed various acts forbidden by Puluga, and incited 
others to do so. It is expressed thus : 

My grown-up handsome son. 

Burn the wax. (Burnt wax was especially obnoxious to 

Puluga.) 
Grind the seed of the chakan. 
Destroy the barata. 
Dig up the gono. 
Dig up the chati. 
Destroy everything. 

Then Puluga was angry and sent the deluge. — Condensed from 
account by Man, op. cit., pp. 163 if. 
1 Cf. supra, p. 44. 

47 



A Study in Epic Development 

on the northeast frontier of India. We are told that there 
the dramatic element is especially conspicuous. The dances 
are imitative of such incidents as fights and bear-hunts, 
or of adventures of a more personal character ; one, which 
is given in outline, reproduces a tragedy. 1 The burden 
of the song accompanying it is : One day a young man 
left his love and went into the jungle for cane to make 
a basket for her ; he was devoured by a tiger, and announced 
his fate to the young woman in a dream. In this the nature 
of the narrative would seem to require for its dramatic repre- 
sentation a lyrical quality. 

The Lepchas, or Rongs, the aborigines of Sikhim, in the 
southeastern Himalayas, are thought by Mr. Waddell to be 
outlying members of the Naga group. 2 At any rate, they 
are people who seem always to have been without coherent 
political organization. 3 In the songs they have preserved 
there are archaic 4 words of which they have forgotten the 
meaning, but there are also 1 evidences 5 of contamination 
from the Tibetans and Nepalese, among whom they are 
fast losing their identity, and consequently the songs given 
can not be said with certainty to represent the people before 
their contact with a higher civilization. In the one selected, 
however, Mr. Waddell thought he had an example of uncon- 
taminated production, and it will be seen to combine the 
narrative and lyrical qualities. 6 

1 Godden, Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xxvi, pp. 161 ff. ; xxvii, pp. 2 ff. ; 
cf. Woodthorpe, Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xi, pp. 56 ff. 

2 Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie, xii, p. 43. 

3 lb., p. 47. * See below, note 6. B Op. cit., p. 45. 
6 Op. cit., p. 49. 

O Joy! 
The Kal Head- Father- Spirit in the olden time 
Made the earth. (He) The Sky-Existing One 
Made in this tearful world the fields to cover the bosom of 

the stones. 
When the Sham-man-mi men were made 
And the Gi jointed Bamboos and trees, at the same time 

were we 
The sons of the (one-) Mother-flesh jolly Rongs. 

48 



Early Forms of Epic 

3. In the many celebrations of the Hottentots 1 there can 
be no question as to the dramatic character of the dances. 
These dances may be either representations of a religious 
nature, or reproductions of events in daily life. An illus- 
tration of the songs used in combination with them is found 
in a celebration in which the lightning is represented as a 
woman, and sings the solo parts ; the chorus responds, and 
acts the part of the inhabitants of a kraal, one of whom has 
been killed by the lightning. 2 

Chorus: Thou, child of the thunder-cloud, 
Stepchild of the fire! 
Thou, who hast killed my brother! 
Behold thee now lying in a pit ! 
Solo : Yes, it is I who have killed thy brother. 

While the dramatic and lyric character of this production 
is pronounced, the traces of narrative are present also in the 
recital — Thou who hast killed my brother,' Tt is I who 
have killed thy brother.' 

4. Sufficient investigation has been made among the Aus- 
tralians to render possible a fair estimate of the character 
of their literature. We are told that there is scarcely any 
part of their life which is not in some measure connected with 

O Joy! 
The Far-shi-sham mulberry trees were made, 
The rice, the vegetables were made, 
The running rivers with the So-o-re fishes were made, 
The Sok-o-re sky-birds were made, 
The ground Bag-dyol worms, 

The Ku do-ren insects and the rainbow were made 
(All) by our first old great-grandfather. 

(But our) Tsat-sau-dong troubles were made by our old 
first great-grandmother. 

1 The Hottentots are classed by Letourneau (L 'evolution politique, 
pp. 59 ff.) among the lowest forms of monarchical tribes. 

2 Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p. 131. Cited by Letourneau, devolution 
litteraire, p. 56. For other Hottentot songs see Hahn, Die Natna- 
Hottentoten, Globus, xxvi, pp. 161 ff. 

49 



A Study in Epic Development 

song. 1 A whole camp is pictured to us as joining one by 
one at early dawn in a chorus that describes the bats 'flitting 
about in the dim light which shows between the upper 
boughs of the tall trees.' Another favorite song, which the 
poet composed when going down the coast in his boat, is 
freely rendered, 'Between the furious wind and the dashing 
waves of the long-stretched sea I was nearly upset/ 

The lack of distinctive character in these songs is further 
indicated in what is said to represent fairly the improvisa- 
tion of the successful hunter. His personal gratulation is 
blended with the story, thus giving it its narrative and lyric 
tone. 

The kangaroo ran very fast, 

I ran faster. 
The kangaroo was very fat, 

I ate him. 
Kangaroo ! Kangaroo ! 2 

While improvisation is practised by all, those who show 
especial ability are honored, and their songs, as well as 
the pantomimic gestures accompanying them, are passed 
from clan to clan, until the meaning of even the words is 
lost. It is easy to see how, under these circumstances, the 
dramatic element disappears ; but in both the improvisations 
and the clan celebrations, the songs, so far as interpreted, 
bear witness in their narrative and lyrical elements to the 
early indeterminate form of literature. 

The clan celebrations, or corrobories, furnish opportunity, 
as has been said, 3 for the improvisator, as well as transmit 
improvisations in fixed form. The following is an illus- 
tration of the kind of song used on such occasions : 

Pooraman oro tora tono, 4 
Plukman holo ! Bum ! Bum ! 
Pooraman oro, Bum ! Bum ! 

The explanation is that some poor black men were cooking 

1 Howitt, Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xvi, pp. 327 fF. 

* Oldfield, Trans. Ethnol. Soc. (Eng.), New Series, iii, p. 272. 

*Cf. supra, p. 40. 'Oldfield, op. cit., p. 258. 

50 






Early Forms of Epic 

meat in the embers (Oro tora tono) ; there is no mention 
of the fact that the meat had been stolen from a settler, 
that the authorities had been warned, and that it was a 
policeman who came upon the thieves and cried out : 'Holo !' 
and fired at them, the 'Bum ! Bum !' of the song. It is 
easy to see that such omissions render the dramatic element 
not only important but necessary, and that in the expres- 
sion of pity for the men the lyrical quality is added to the 
narrative. 1 

A legend 2 of creation, which comes from central Australia, 
shows the degree of development to which they have attained 
in transmitted songs. Dealing with occurrences which suc- 

x The dramatic element in the corrobory is made clearer in the 
description given by Oldfield of the reproduction by the Australians 
of the capture of a whale by a party of whites. The proceeding had 
been witnessed by an old man who determined to imitate it. They 
constructed the figure of a whale out of bushes, and the men drove 
their spears into it as they danced and sang about it, while the 
women beat time and joined in the songs. Cf. Howitt, op. cit., pp. 
332 ff. 

2 According to this tradition, in the early mythical time the country 
was covered with salt water, which was gradually drawn away 
towards the north by the people of that region. At this time there 
dwelt in the western sky two beings called Ungambikula, or 'self- 
existing/ who saw, away in the east, a number of rudimentary or 
incomplete human beings, called Inapertwa, whom they were to 
fashion into men and women. These Inapertwa dwelt in groups 
along the shore of the salt water; they were merely outlines of 
bodies, without distinct limbs or organs. The Ungambikula came 
down from their home in the sky, armed with great stone knives. 
They took hold of the Inapertwa, and first they released the arms, 
then made four clefts at the end of each for fingers ; the legs and 
toes were formed in the same manner. Then a nose was added, 
and nostrils bored with the fingers, and the mouth was cut open 
and pulled to make it flexible. The knife separated the upper and 
lower eyelids, and a few further strokes completed the body. Hav- 
ing finished their work, the Ungambikula transformed themselves 
into little lizards. 

The legend does not stop with the retirement of the creators, but 
continues in an incoherent way to account for certain rites and 
ceremonies which it finds established among the beings created. 

Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 381 ff. 

5i 



A Study in Epic Development 

ceed one another without regard to starting-point, causal 
connection, or ending, the narrative can not be said to give 
in itself any indication of a definite ideal of form among 
the people. It is extended in the disjointed and fragmen- 
tary fashion of the narratives of Bushmen 1 and Anda- 
manese 2 , and shows that the Australians gave an exemplifi- 
cation of their undeveloped artistic sense in their literary 
as well as in their political creations. 

Similar narratives, which preserve apparent history, sur- 
vive among peoples more advanced than those whose litera- 
ture has been examined; however, among such people the 
growing artistic sense finds expression in a different char- 
acter of song, so that the formlessness of the historic narra- 
tive can not be considered the measure of their artistic 
ability. With the Australians, Andamanese, and Bush- 
men, on the other hand, this formlessness marks the limit 
of their attainment. 

5. The songs of the Eskimos deal with all manner of sub- 
jects — with myths, traditions, personal experiences, and 
fictitious occurrences. They are accompanied by imitative 
gesture, the voices of the singers are modulated to express 
the feeling of the different persons, and numbers of the tales 
are onomatopoetic. From these facts it is apparent that 
the dramatic element is present. As to the lyric and the 
narrative, while the latter predominates, the lyric element 
is also clear. It is very apparent, for instance, in the nith- 
song 3 between Savdlat and Pulangitsissok, which is only 

1 Cf. supra, p. 44. 2 Cf. supra, p. 46. 

8 'The nith-songs . . . were used for settling all kinds of quar- 
rels, and punishing any sort of crime, or breach of public order or 
custom, with the exception of those which could be expiated only 
by death in the shape of the blood-revenge. If a person had a 
complaint against another, he forthwith composed a song about it, 
and invited his opponent to meet him, announcing the time and 
place where he would sing against him. . . . The cheering or 
dissent of the assembly at once represented the judgment as well as 
the punishment.' — Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 34. 



52 



Early Forms of Epic 

one of many available examples of improvisation. (The 
inter jectional refrain is omitted.) 

Savdlat. 1 The south, the south, oh the south yonder! 
. . . When settling on the midland coast I met Pulangit- 
sissok, . . . who had grown fat with eating halibut. 
. . Those people from the midland coast they don't know 
speaking, . . . because they are ashamed of their speech. 
Stupid they are besides. . . . Their speech is not alike : 
. . . some speak like the northern, some like the south- 
ern ; . . . therefore we can't make out their talk. 

Pulangitsissok. There was a time when Savdlat wished 
that I should be a good kayaker; . . . that I should 
take a good load on my kayak. . . . Many years ago 
some day he wanted me to put a heavy load on my kayak. 
. . . (This happened at the time) when Savdlat had his 
kayak tied to mine (for fear of being capsized). . . . 
Then he could carry plenty upon his kayak, . . . when 
I had to tow thee, and thou didst cry most pitiful, . . . 
and thou didst grow afeard, . . . and nearly wast upset, 
. . . and hadst to keep thy hold by help of my kayak 
strings. 

There are numerous widely-spread traditions among the 
Eskimos, any one of which might be given as representative, 
in its form, of the people's artistic ability. Of these tradi- 
tions, that which relates to Sedna, 2 goddess of the lower 
world, may be considered typical. 

x Ib. t pp. 67 ff. 

2 Sedna lived quietly with her father, who was an Inung. She 
was a handsome girl and had many wooers, but she would have none 
of them. Finally a fulmar flew from over the sea, and wooed her 
with enticing song : 'Come to me ; come into the land of the birds, 
where there is never hunger, where my tent is made of the most 
beautiful skins. You shall rest on soft bearskins. The fulmars 
shall bring you all your heart may desire; their feathers shall 
clothe you ; your lamp shall always be filled with oil, your pot with 
meat.' Sedna could not resist his wooing, and went with him to his 
home ; but when she came to the country of the fulmar she found 
that she had been shamefully deceived. Her home was covered with 
wretched fish-skins, full of holes that gave free entrance to wind and 

53 



A Study in Epic Development 

The story appears in different versions, but when it is 
given in abridged form the omitted portions are supposed 
to be familiar to the hearers. It has evidently been sub- 
jected to repeated transmissions, and shows in some places 
a coherence which is not found in the legends 1 already 
given. This may arise from the fact that among the 
Eskimos the narrator of the story has only limited dis- 
cretionary powers; he must keep as close as possible to 
the original plan, 2 and although he is allowed to insert 
passages from other songs, he is not allowed to change 
them. The tendency is to preserve the shape of the reci- 
tals unaltered, and this being the case, the efforts of the 

snow. Her bed was made of hard walrus hides, and she had to live 
on miserable fish which the birds brought to her. Too soon she 
found that she had thrown away her opportunity when in foolish 
pride she had rejected the Inuit youth. In her woe she sang: 'Aja! 
O father, if you knew how wretched I am, you would come to me, 
and we would hurry away in your boat over the waters. The birds 
look unkindly upon me, the stranger; cold winds roar about my 
bed; they give me but miserable food. O .come and take me back 
home, Aja!' When a year had passed, the father left his country 
to visit Sedna. She greeted him joyfully, and besought him to take 
her home. He killed her husband, the fulmar, and took her away, 
but they were pursued by other fulmars, who stirred up a heavy 
storm. The -father determined to make an offering of Sedna to the 
birds, and flung her overboard, but she clung to the edge of the boat. 
He took a knife and cut off the first joints of her fingers ; these, 
falling into the sea, were changed into whales, and the nails became 
whalebone. Sedna held on to the boat, and her father cut off the 
second joints of her fingers, and these swam away as seals; then 
he cut off the stumps of her fingers ; and they became ground seals. 
The fulmars thought Sedna was drowned, and the storm was 
allowed to subside. Her father then drew her into the boat. She, 
however, was unforgiving, and meditated revenge upon him, and 
when they went ashore she called her dogs, and let them gnaw off 
his hands and feet while he was asleep. When he awoke he cursed 
himself, Sedna, and the dogs, and the earth opened and swallowed 
them all, and they have since lived in the land of Adlivum, of which 
Sedna is mistress. — Condensed from Dr. Boaz's account, Ethnol. 
Rep., 1884-85, pp. 583 ff- 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 44, 46, 51. 2 Rink, op. cit., p. 85. 

54 



Early Forms of Epic 

singer are not dissipated in the expression of vague, indefi- 
nitely conceived objects and incidents; they are directed 
towards the presentation of material which already has its 
outlines shaped. Consequently a smoothness of narrative 
is likely to result ; but notwithstanding this advantage over 
the previously considered examples, the story can not be 
said to develop its incidents because of any inner necessity; 
their places might equally well be filled by other incidents. 
The result is that we have not in the recital an organic 
whole, and it gives no indication of a conception of unity 
on the part of the people. Moreover, the connection that 
would seem to be established between the various recitals, 
through the liberty allowed to the singer of incorporating 
incidents from other legends, does not interfere with the 
independence of the songs. Neither individual nor event 
rises into preeminence, nor does one legend show any ten- 
dency to absorb others ; they exist in an equality which is 
paralleled by the equality of the communal life, and the 
absence of any tendency towards a unifying centre corre- 
sponds to a similar condition in the political constitution. 1 
6. It does not lie within the province of this study to 
examine the many influences which have part in shaping 
racial characteristics, and which result in certain psychologi- 
cal tendencies that find one means of expression in a pre- 
dominance of narrative, or of lyric, or of dramatic qualities 
in the literary productions ; but it is of importance to note 
that whichever may predominate, the composite character 
of the literary product is still maintained. For example, in 
contrast with the improvisation of the Eskimo, where the 
narrative quality prevails, the improvisation of the negroes 
of the southern part of the United States shows a preference 
for the lyrical quality, but in neither instance can the songs 
be distinguished as clearly narrative or lyric. 

*An illustration of similar tendencies, exhibited upon a much 
higher plane, is found in the Finnish narrative songs, which maintain 
their practical independence notwithstanding the scientific forcing 
that would weld them into the Kalevala. 



55 



A Study in Epic Development 

The conditions under which a great portion of the songs 
of the negroes were produced corresponded, in a measure, 
to those of communal life. The slaves dwelt in groups on 
the great plantations before the civil war; the power that 
governed them was not of them, but external to them ; at the 
same time their interests were one, their pleasures were 
in common, and their tasks were performed together. The 
body of song which was the result of this association is 
still continually increased by the enthusiasm of the improvi- 
sator. 

In some instances new songs, 1 suggested by their sur- 
roundings, have been adapted to the dances evidently 
brought from their native countries, and the dances, in con- 
sequence, have become only markers of rhythm, having lost 
their old significance; but the dramatic element exists 
to-day in the improvisations, and when the negroes are car- 
ried away by the enthusiasm of the moment and rendered 
unconscious of foreign scrutiny, they reflect their thought 
in outward action. This fact finds illustration in a recent 
song 2 which comes from the neighborhood of Columbia, S. C. 

1 Cable, Century, ix, pp. 517 ff. and 807 ff . ; cf. Woods, Native 
Tribes, p. 37; cf. supra, p. 50. 

2 Got a lettah dis mawnin', 

Um-m-m-m, 
Could not read dat lettah, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Took it to my deacon, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Deacon could not read it, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Took it to my pastor, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Pastor could not read it, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Took it to my Jesus, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Jesus read dat lettah, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Lettah read 'bout my soul, 

Um-m-m-m, 

56 



Early Forms of Epic 

It was first sung by a convert while giving his experience 
at a camp-meeting. The lines are not drawn in it between 
narrative and lyric, and in the facial expression, gestures, 
and attitude of the improvisator was abundant testimony 
to the existence of the dramatic element. 

The surroundings of the negro have, however, an influence 
upon the manner in which he presents his product, and an 
audience which produces self-consciousness in the singer 
may thrust the dramatic element into the background; but 
the blended lyric and narrative quality remains, and can 
be illustrated by numerous examples. 1 

Gospel train a-comin', 

Um-m-m-m, 
Lettah read 'bout Judgment, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Sinnah bettah git ready, 

Um-m-m-m, 
Gospel train a-comin', 

Um-m-m-m, 
Sinnah bettah git on board, 

Um-m-m-m. 

Its unlimited possibilities for extension are shown in the addition 
made to it by the old cook who sang it all the day following its 
presentation, concluding with : 

Come and mix dem cakeses, 
Um-m-m-m. 
Miss Haskell, Negro Spirituals, Century, Aug., 1899. 

1 Uncle Gabriel celebrates an impressive event in the experience 
of Virginia negroes: 

O, my boys, I'm bound to tell you ; O ! O ! 
Listen awhile and I will tell you, O ! O ! 
I'll tell you little 'bout Uncle Gabriel. 

O, boys, I've just begun, 

Hard times in old Virginny. 

O, don't you know old Uncle Gabriel ? O ! O ! 
O, he was a darkey general, O ! O ! 
He was the chief of the insurgents 

Way down in Southampton. 

Hard times in old Virginny. 

57 



A Study in Epic Development 

A young negro himself speaks in the following story as 
to the method of improvisation, and endeavors to make clear 

It was a little boy betrayed him, O ! O ! 
A little boy by the name of Daniel, O ! O ! 
Betrayed him at the Norfolk landing. 

O, boys, I'm getting done, 

Hard times in old Virginny. 

Says he, 'How d'ye do, my uncle Gabriel ?' O ! O ! 
'I'm not your Uncle Gabriel ; O ! O ! 
My name it is Jim McCullen; 

Some they calls me Archy Mullin/ 

Hard times in old Virginny. 

They took him down to the gallows, O ! O ! 

They drove him down with four grey horses, O ! O ! 

Brice's Ben he drove the wagon. 

O, boys, I'm almost done, 

Hard times in old Virginny. 

And there they hung him and they swung him, O ! O ! 
And they swung him and they hung him, O ! O ! . 
And that was the last of the darkey general. 

O, boys, I'm just done, 

Hard times in old Virginny. 

Brown, Songs of the Slave, Lip pine oti's Mag., ii, 1868. 

The following was used as a rowing song by the negroes in por- 
tions of Georgia: 



Gen'l Jackson, mighty man, 

Whaw, my kingdom, fire away. 

He fight on sea and he fight on land, 
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away. 

Gen'l Jackson gain de day, 

Whaw, my kingdom, fire away. 

He gain de day in Floriday, 

Whaw, my kingdom, fire away. 

Gen'l Jackson fine de trail, 

Whaw, my kingdom, fire away. 

He full um fote wid cotton bale, 
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away. 



58 



Early Forms of Epic 

his mental processes: 'Once we boys went for tote some 
rice, an' de nigger-driver he keep a callin' on us, an' I say, 
"O de ole nigger-driver!" Den anudder said, "Fust ting 
my mammy tole me was, notin' so bad as nigger-driver/' 
Den I made a sing, just puttin a word, an' den anudder 
word/ 1 

It is only in so far as they are improvisations that the 
songs of the American negroes are important in the present 
study, since as a people they have had no distinct, continu- 
ous existence, and no opportunity to make clear either a poli- 
tical or an artistic ideal. 

The following is a corn-shucking song: 

Cow boy on middle e' island, 

Ho ! meleety, ho ! 
Cow boy on middle e' island, 

Ho ! meleety, ho ! 
Missus eat de green persimmon, 

Ho! meleety, ho! {Repeat.) 
Mouf all drawed up in a pucker, 

Ho! meleety, ho! {Repeat.) 
Staid so till she went to supper, 

Ho! meleety, ho ! {Repeat.) 

Putnam's Mag., v, pp. 72 ff. 

1 The result was as follows : 

Oh, de ole nigger-driver ! 

Oh, gwine away ! 
Fust ting my mammy tell me, 

Oh, gwine away ! 
Tell me 'bout de nigger-driver ! 

Oh, gwine away ! 
Nigger-driver second devil, 

Oh, gwine away ! 
Best ting for do he driver, 

Oh, gwine away ! 
Knock he down and spoil he labor, 

Oh, gwine away ! 

Higginson, Negro Spirituals, Atlantic Monthly, xix. 
59 



A Study in Epic Development 

The association of the peoples so far considered is marked 
by different degrees of closeness. In some cases there is an 
embryonic chief 1 who advises rather than commands, and 
whose wishes may or may not prevail in the council, but as 
yet there has been no clearly defined political organization 
of which the characteristics are distinctly marked, nor have 
the recitals advanced far enough to give clear indication 
of anything save formlessness in the literature. 

III. Tribes. 

i. The inhabitants of certain of the Melanesian islands 
continue to live under political conditions similar to those 
of the people already examined; 2 but in other of the 
islands, as in New Caledonia, they have a tribal organiza- 
tion, with a chief at its head, whose power tends toward that 
of a monarch. 

The character of a portion of a people's literature is 
directly modified by the importance of the tribal chief, for, 
in addition to the songs that celebrate, the common events 
of life — the hunt, the harvest, the fishing, etc. — are added 
those which glorify his deeds and the deeds of his ancestors. 
Such songs are not necessarily removed from improvisation ; 
but it frequently happens that the doings of the chief do not 
furnish sufficient inspiration in themselves, and then an 
effort is required satisfactorily to magnify his glory ; under 
these circumstances the poet must fashion his work from 
the outside, instead of following the leading of the spirit 
that animates him. 

Moreover, under these conditions, the profession of bard 
becomes important, because, according as the poet is more 
or less skilful in his panegyrics, he is entitled to remunera- 
tion by his master. On the other hand, improvisation by 
the bard who seeks the favor of his chief is discouraged, 
because of the disastrous consequences which wait upon 

1 Cf. Letourneau, U evolution politique, p. 60. 

2 For illustrations of their literature see Codrington, The Melane- 
sians, pp. 356 ff. 

60 



Early Forms of Epic 

failure. A result of these conditions is the creation of two 
kinds of literature, one of which tends to be formal, to be 
manufactured according to fixed rules, to cater to the tastes 
of a few, and to become less and less representative of the 
mass; the other, the literature of the people, continues to 
exist by the side of this artificial product, and, in the form 
which it assumes, embodies the growing popular ideals. 

There is the beginning of this separation in the literature 
of the Melanesians. The professional bard is established 
with them, and is remunerated for his services in the cele- 
bration of any important event. Training, as well as 
inspiration, is necessary for his success, since the song- 
language is distinct from that of ordinary speech, and 
further, because the songs are composed according to pre- 
scribed rules, the successive parts bearing distinct names, 
and being introduced by a vocal prelude. 1 

The Melanesians have a large body of song which may be 
classed under the healing of national celebrations. Among 
these are the initiatory ceremonies of the secret societies. 
Here the songs and dances are prescribed, 2 and are there- 
fore in an approximately rigid condition. But it is ques- 
tionable whether these songs were originally improvisations, 
since much of the other accessible poetry appears also in 
conventionalized form. Such poetry, however, in the form 
in which it is presented exhibits a confusion of type. In the 
following war-chant, 3 which from its nature is a tribal 
expression, the lyric quality is strong, but the poet is also 
narrating his vision : 

It is not the pale blood of the trees which will flow to-day; 

It is the red blood of the heart. 

The hurricane lays the grass low ; war strikes down the 

warriors ; 
The axe cuts open the skulls; the arrow is buried in the 

flesh. 
It is war ! war ! 

x Ib., pp. 334 ff- 

2 lb., chaps, v and vi. 

8 Cited by Letourneau, L' evolution litteraire, p. 47. 

61 



A Study in Epic Development 

This is a form of narrative which is used by the high masters 
of epic art; it is the prototype of such visions as Anchises 
had when from a rising ground on Pluto's plains he showed 
Aeneas the glory that should henceforth attend the Trojan 
race; 1 or as Adam saw, when from the highest hill of 
Paradise he looked down through ages of 'crime-stained' 
men. 2 

The separation of the Melanesian tribes, and the lack of any 
communication between them, confine the songs to narro". 
limits, and render impossible the elevation of any hero com- 
mon to the islands, even were all the islands in a sufficiently 
advanced condition to centre their ideals in a hero. A ten- 
dency towards such a condition is indicated in a recital 
which comes from New Caledonia, and commemorates the 
misfortunes of a chief who had been deposed by the French. 
It is the representation, in the form of allegory, of a histori- 
cal experience of the people, and the chief, who stands as the 
symbol of his tribe, is such by reason of his prominence, 
and as such turns the historical narrative of tribal life into 
a personal exploit. This narrative 3 is the work of a special- 

1 Aeneid, vi, 757 ff. 

2 Paradise Lost, xi, xii. 

3 The following is condensed from the version given by Letour- 
neau, op. cit., pp. 42 ff. : 

A chief who had spread his nets in a forest-tree for bats, found 
there, instead, a white figure in human shape, of which he was 
afraid, for he knew that it was a genie. 'Deliver me/ it said in a 
gentle voice. 'I am afraid,' said the chief. 'Deliver me; I will do 
thee no harm, and will give thee presents.' Then the chief climbed 
into the tree, but had scarcely set the white spirit free before it 
leaped upon his back and clasped his neck, crying: 'Descend from 
the tree and take me to thy home.' 'Yes, but let us walk side by 
side.' The genie refused, and the chief returned to his hut bearing 
his burden. There his old mother asked: 'What bringest thou?' 
and he answered: It is without doubt a strange spirit; I know not 
who he is, nor whence he comes, nor what he wishes. He has 
hung himself upon my back. Impossible to free myself from him.' 
'Enough of words ! and give me some food,' said the stranger in 
a thundering voice. Then he began to eat of the food, without 
allowing any one else a portion, and while eating he soiled with his 

62 



Early Forms of Epic 

ist, but of a specialist who still speaks and thinks as one of 
the people ; it is not marked by the incoherence of the Bush- 
man, Andamanese, or Australian legends. 1 It may be said, 
unlike the Eskimo narrative, 2 to show a certain logical 
sequence in its progress, which is not entirely the result of 
dealing with an event that has in itself such progressive 

saliva the head of the great chief. 'Leave me now,' said the chief 
to his persecutor. 'Here are bracelets, pearls ; take them and return 
to the place whence thou earnest.' Vain prayer ! the chief must care 
for his burden, and as the night came on he lay down with his 
grievous charge. But when the tyrant slept the chief freed himself 
from him, and taking his most beautiful arms, his richest bracelet, 
his red toque, and his aigrette, he ran to ask asylum from an ally. 
'Brother, is it thou whom I see?' 'Yes, it is I who wander without 
asylum. I stretched my net for bats, and found in it an unknown 
being. I freed him, and he cast himself upon my shoulders. He 
has eaten my food, he has insulted me and prevented me from eat- 
ing. I pray thee conceal me.' 'Take a place by my fire,' said the 
brave ally, 'and fear nothing. We know how to handle a hatchet 
and to disembowel an enemy. We will await this stranger.' But 
immediately a frightful hurricane burst upon them. A great cloud 
hid the horizon; its head was upon the top of the mountains, and 
its foot was on the plain. Soon they recognized the white spirit, 
and the chief was asked to take refuge elsewhere. He sought it 
with one and another ; was always welcomed in the same manner, 
but always pursued, until finally he came to the edge of the island 
where there was nothing beyond him but the sea. Behind him he 
saw his terrible persecutor, but on the shore were two children to 
whom he told his story. 'Follow us,' said the children, 'to the 
bottom of the sea.' He did so, and found there a magnificent home, 
full of lizards, iguanes, taros, bananas, and sugar cane, with meat 
and fish and six young women to serve him. The white spirit could 
not follow; he could not swim; but he called (all) the birds to 
him, and ordered them to drink all the water of the sea. The duck 
drank, drank, drank, drank. The heron drank, drank, drank, drank, 
and the other birds did the same. Soon the rocks were uncovered ; 
then the dwelling where the chief had sought refuge was disclosed, 
and the white spirit precipitated himself upon it. But at the moment 
his head came within the door, the smaller of the two children killed 
him with a blow of his hatchet. 

*Cf. supra, pp. 44, 46, 51. 2 Cf. supra, pp. 53 ft*. 

63 



A Study in Epic Development 

elements, for the ending departs from the actual experience 
of the people. 

2. In the Polynesian archipelago the prevailing political 
organization is tribal, and the office of chief has become 
hereditary. Here, as among the Melanesians, 1 the bards 
constitute a distinct class, 2 trained from childhood in the 
duties of their position. The language of the ancient songs 
which they transmit is no longer spoken, and these poems 
must therefore be largely removed from popular influence. 
But, although the form of much of the song product has 
become conventionalized, there is, as among the Melane- 
sians, a body of literature which is being continually 
increased by improvisation. We are told that everybody 
sings, everybody improvises, and every occasion or event 
furnishes an opportunity. 3 

An illustration of the improvisations is found in a song of 
the Areois: 4 You, light winds from the south and the east, 
who play lovingly about my head, hasten together to another 
isle. You will find there one who has abandoned me, seated 
in the shade of his favorite tree. Teirhim that you have 
seen me in tears because of his absence; 5 — and further, in 
a recent song, in which the poet relates his escape from 
drowning : 

Sucked down, down by the waves; 
The words were on everybody's lips — 
'He lies at the bottom of the sea, 
And life is nearly extinct.' 

1 Ci. supra, p. 61. 

2 Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, Introd. 

8 'They had one song for the fisherman, another for the canoe- 
builder, a song for cutting down the tree, a song for launching the 
cartoe.' — Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i, pp. 199 ff. 

4 'They were a sort of strolling players and privileged libertines, 
who spent their days in traveling from island to island, and from 
one district to another, exhibiting their pantomimes and spreading 
a moral contagion throughout society.' — Ellis, ib., pp. 234 ff. 

B Moerehout, Voy. aux ties, i, p. 413. Cited by Letourneau, p. 102. 

64 



Early Forms of Epic 

Yes, my feet pressed the very bottom, 
And weeping friends above 
Ne'er hoped to see me more ! 
In truth I had almost gone. 1 

In both examples the narrative and lyric elements exist in 
an undifferentiated condition, and in each instance they 
were combined with the dramatic dance. 

There is abundant testimony to the confusion of type in 
the national celebrations. As to the dramatic element, its 
existence is attested from the various islands. In New Zea- 
land 2 it is illustrated in the war dance, in the brandishing 
spears and shaking darts, and in the violent motions and 
hideous contortions that accompany the chant. 

Captain Cook 3 bears witness to its existence in the songs 
at Ulieta, where he was entertained by the performance of 
wandering minstrels ; at Habai, 4 where in one exhibition one 
hundred and five persons took part; at Tongatabo, 5 at 
Matavai, 6 and in the Sandwich 7 Islands, where he witnessed 
similar performances. It is present in songs of more 
recent composition; it is apparent in the Day Song for 
Maaki's Fete, where the warning birds are represented by 
six men in masks ; 8 it appears in the blackened faces and 
shaved heads of the mourners, and in the passionate weep- 
ing with which the entire assembly closes a crying song; 
it is shown in the clashing spears and warlike evolutions 
that accompany the chorus when the war dirge is chanted. 9 

1 Gill, Life in Southern Isles, p. 331. 

2 Cook, Three Famous Voyages of, p. 196. 

8 lb., pp. 115 ff. The subject of the representation was clear from 
the action. There were a master and his servants on one side, and 
a company of thieves on the other. The master gave a basket of 
meat to his servants, which the thieves, after various unsuccess- 
ful attempts, stole; the servants, who had fallen asleep, awakened 
and fell to dancing. 

* lb., pp. 689-694. There was also a sort of ballet, in which some- 
times women sang and danced, and a chorus of men responded, and 
sometimes the men were engaged in both the dance and the chorus. 

8 lb., pp. 709 ff. a lb., pp. 776 ff. 7 lb., pp. 846-1019. 

8 Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 49. 

9 lb., pp. 270 ff. 

65 



A Study in Epic Development 

In these later compositions, also, the blending of the nar- 
rative and lyric with the dramatic element is clear, as it is 
in the older celebrations where the songs have been pre- 
served. 1 

Even in the transmitted popular legends the narrative and 
lyric elements are still confused. This is the case in the 

1 It is apparent in the form of prayer that was used in the wor- 
ship of Tangaroa. before the overthrow of idolatry: 

Intoned by the Priest. 

Speak, thou ancient Tangaroa, 

To thy worshipers ; 

Praise Tangaroa, praise (him). 

People. 
Praise (him), praise (him). Ha! Ha! 

War dance. 

Let the gods speak; 

Let the kings rule; 

We offer thee worship, O god! 

Intoned by the Priest. 

Atia is the original land 
From which we sprang. 

Avaiki is the original land 
From which some came. 

Kuporu is the original land 
From which we sprang. 

Vavan is the original land 
From which some came. 

Manuk is the original land 
From which we sprang. 

Gill, Life in Southern Isles, p. 27. 

Interesting parallels to this combination of narrative and lyric 
elements are to be found in many of the Hebrew Psalms. 

66 



Early Forms of Epic 

great body of historic legends, 1 and it is apparent in the 
songs of creation. 2 

1 It finds illustration in the following legend, which describes the 
catastrophe that preceded the departure of emigrants, perhaps from 
New Zealand to Hawaii : 

The great forests of Tapa-pala have been burned; the rocks even 
have been set on fire. The land of Toua-Ehu was a desert; the 
bird perched upon the rocks of Ohara-hara. For eight days and 
eight nights those who till (the soil) were out of breath, wearied 
with planting the herbs, prostrate under the sun. They looked 
around them with dread, etc. 

Then turning to the islands of refuge, the song continues : 

O, Touai, Touai, how dear thou art ! Land in the midst of 
the sea, thou reposest peacefully on the bosom of the waters and 
turnest thy face to the soft winds, etc. 

Then again, the narrative is resumed : 

The sea was the way by which to reach the sandy shore of Tai- 
mou. The path was hidden: — Kiroea was hidden by the storm; 
mou. The path was hidden: — Kiroea was hidden by the storm; 
flames. — Lesson, Les Polynesiens, ii, p. 185. Cited by Letourneau, 
p. 101. 

2 As illustrated in the following : 

In the beginning, space and companions. 

Space was the darkest heaven. 

Tanaoa (Darkness) filled and dwelt in the whole heavens, 

And Mutuhei (Silence) was entwined above. 

There was no voice, there was no sound; 

No living things were moving. 

There was no day, there was no light — 

A dark black night. 

O, Tanaoa he ruled the night. 

O, Mutuhei was a spirit pervading and vast. 

From within Tanaoa came forth Atea (Light), 

Life vigorous, power great ; 

O, Atea he ruled the day, 

And drove away Tanaoa. 

Between Day and Night, Atea and Tanaoa, 

Sprang up wars, fierce and long. 

Atea and Tanaoa, great wrath and contention. 

Tanaoa confined, Atea soared onward. 

Tanaoa dark as ever, 

Atea very good and very active. 

67 



A Study in Epic Development 

The Polynesian mind is here actively peering into mys- 
teries, questioning and creating; it is not restricted in its 
workings to the rudimentary outlines of Eskimo 1 thought, 
but neither has it yet arrived at clear, definite ideas. It is 
still floundering among indistinct images ; it has not learned 
to concentrate itself upon particular conceptions, and to 

From within Atea came forth Ono (Sound) ; 

O, Ono he ruled the sound and broke up Mutuhei (Silence). 

Here a great division was made in the 

Company of Atanua (Dawn). 

Here the song tells of the marriage of Atanua and Atea, Dawn 
and Light. Then Atea and Ono take on additional significance, they 
pass onward, pass upward : 

Atea the body, Ono the spirit, 
Atea with Ono in one place. 



They two the same glory, 

Atea the substance, Ono the . . . . , 

And dwelt as kings in the most beautiful places, 

Supported on thrones, large, many-colored, wondrous. 

They dwelt above, they dwelt beyond, 

They ruled the space of heaven, 

And the large powers thereof, 

The first lords dwelling on high. 

Then follows a lyrical apostrophe to the thrones, and after that 
the relation of the riches of the fair Atanua (Dawn) and her vic- 
tory over Tanaoa (Darkness). 

Then to Atea and Atanua is born a son : 

O the great prince, O the sacred superior ! 

O the princely son, first-born of divine power ! 

O the lord of everything, here, there, and always ! 

O the lord of the heavens and the entire sky ! 

O the princely son, first-born of the exalted power ! 

O the son equal with the father, and with Ono, 

Dwelling in the same place ! 

Joined are they there in the same power, 

The father, Ono, and the son. 

The poem closes with a glorification of the three in one. — For- 
nander, The Polynesian Race, i, pp. 214 ff. 

*Cf. supra, p. 53. 

68 



Early Forms of Epic 

separate from those conceptions the half-thoughts that crowd 
around them. The poet starts to narrate an incident, and is 
carried away from his direct purpose by a distracting half- 
vision of the grandeur of his theme. In this helpless state 
his expression is vague and incoherent, since the poetic 
form can manifest only such a degree of clearness as the 
mind has been able to master. 

The transmitted legends of the Polynesians are not, how- 
ever, limited to such suggestive but formless narratives. 
It is attested from personal observation 1 that they celebrate 
in their songs the deeds of their heroes and tribal chiefs ; a 
testimony to the fact that the narrative shows an advance in 
form beyond that of any so far considered, 2 unless it be the 
narrative of the New Caledonians, 3 where similar political 
conditions existed. It shows a correspondence in the ten- 
dencies of the literary and of the political life to raise the 
individual above the mass. 

3. The Indians of North America, when we first have 
definite knowledge of them, are at different stages of devel- 
opment ; clans are growing into tribes, and tribes are uniting 
into confederations, but the general tendency is toward an 
aristocratic form of government. The literature that cor- 
responds to these conditions is of a diversified character, 
but, so far as it falls within the scope of this study, will be 
considered under the three headings already employed. 

Examples of recent improvisation are furnished in the 
songs that form a part of the ghost dance. 4 These songs 

1 Ellis, op. cit., i, pp. 198 ff. ; iv, pp. 101, 105. 

2 Cf. supra, pp. 44, 46, 51, 3 Cf. supra, pp. 62 ff. 

* It began to attract attention in 1890, but had been in existence 
previous to that time. The prophet, who rose from the Paiutes, 
professed to have received certain inspirations. 

The Indians, in common with many other people, had long been 
looking for a Messiah, who should restore their inheritance, re-stock 
their hunting grounds, and bring back again all their happy past. 
The Paiute prophet made no claim to be such a Messiah, but he 
did claim to have received a divine revelation; beyond this his 
honors were thrust upon him. 

69 



A Study in Epic Development 

are widely representative, since they are the contributions 
of the many tribes through which the ceremonial spread. 
They are of a fragmentary nature, and depend upon the 
dramatic element for as much coherence as they show. In 
character they are similar to the improvisations examined 
from other sources. 1 The lyric and narrative elements exist 
in them undifferentiated. The song is usually a descrip- 
tive narrative, conveyed in the form of a vision, and thus 
colored by the emotional condition of the singer. 2 

In his revelation he claimed also to have received a certain ritual, 
which he taught. As belief in him and his mission spread, other 
tribes adopted his ceremonial, but supplemented it with songs of 
their own. The participants in the dance fell into trances, and had 
communication with the spirit-world, and any one was privileged 
to tell his experience in song. Thus they had, besides the songs 
that were a regular part of the ceremonial, others which survived 
or disappeared according as they did or did not find favor. — Mooney, 
The Ghost-Dance Religion, Ethnol. Rep. 1892-93. 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 46, 50, 53, 56, 59, 64. 

2 The Paiute songs show the least development ; the following 
fairly represents them : 

The wind stirs the willows, I 

The wind stirs the willows, 

The wind stirs the willows. 

The wind stirs the grasses, 

The wind stirs the grasses, 

The wind stirs the grasses. 

The whirlwind ! the whirlwind ! 

The whirlwind! the whirlwind! (Repeat.) 

The snowy earth comes gliding, 

The snowy earth comes gliding. (Repeat.) 

In their opening song the Sioux stood with hands outstretched 
towards the west, whence was to come the new spirit-world the 
Messiah had promised them. They sang: 

The father says so — Eyayo ! 
The father says so — Eyayo ! 
The father says so, 
The father says so. 

You shall see your grandfather — Eyayo ! 
You shall see your grandfather — Eyayo ! 
The father says so, 
The father says so. 
70 



Early Forms of Epic 

As to the songs which are used in the national celebrations, 
and have fallen into a certain degree of ritualistic rigidity, 

You shall see your kindred — Eyayo ! 
You shall see your kindred — Eyayo ! 
The father says so, 
The father says so. 

And again they express the hope of the people that the dead shall 
come back and the buffalo be plentiful. The message is brought by 
their sacred birds: 

The whole world is coming, 

A nation is coming, a nation is coming, 
The eagle has brought the message to the tribe. 

The father says so, the father says so. 
Over the whole earth they are coming, 

The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming, 
The crow has brought the message to the tribe. 
The father says so, the father says so. 

The Kiowas summarized their hope in a similar song, also stretch- 
ing out their hands towards the west whence the father was to 
come: 

The father will descend, 
The father will descend; 
The earth will tremble, 
The earth will tremble; 
Everybody will arise, 
Everybody will arise. 
And in another, looking towards the return of the buffalo and the 
resurrection of the dead: 

The spirit host is advancing, they say, 
The spirit host is advancing, they say, 
They are coming with the buffalo, they say, 
They are coming with the buffalo, they say, 
They are coming with the (new) earth, they say, 
They are coming with the (new) earth, they say. 
In this song the Caddos looked forward to the reunion of the living 
and the dead in the great village of the father : 
Eyehe ! Nanisana, 
Eyehe ! Nanisana, 
Come on, Caddo, we are all going up, 
Come on, Caddo, we are all going up, 
To the great village — Heeye ! 
To the great village — Heeye ! 

7i 



A Study in Epic Development 

they are also found to present similar characteristics with 
With our father above, 

With our father above where he dwells on high — Heeye ! 
Where our father dwells — Heeye ! 
Where our father dwells — Heeye ! 
In a song of the Arapahoes, the crow, the sacred messenger, had 
led the spirits to the edge of the shadow-land, and there before them 
stretched the sea, while beyond it lay the land of the living. 
According to the interpretation, the crow took up a pebble in his 
beak and dropped it into the sea, and it became a mountain, across 
which he brought his spirit-army again to the edge of the water. 
Then, taking up some dust, he flew across the water and dropped 
the dust, and an arm of land reached to the earth. And again 
he flew across with some blades of grass, and the land was covered 
with sod; and again with some twigs, and a forest of trees grew 
up. And then he marshaled his spirit-host, and crossed over to the 
boundary of the earth. The song is : 

The crow is making a road, 

He is making a road; 

He has finished it, 

He has finished it; 

His children, 

His children, , 

Then he collected them, 

Then he collected them. 

In another Arapaho song the Messiah addresses his children : 
My children, my children, 
It is I who wear the morning star on my head. 
It is I who wear the morning star on my head, 
I show it to my children, 
I show it to my children, 
Says the father, 
Says the father. 
The Cheyennes have incorporated the white man's Devil in a song : 
The devil — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
The devil — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
We have put him aside — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
We have put him aside — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
The White Man Above — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
The White Man Above — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
He is our father — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
He is our father — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
He has blest us — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
He has blest us — Hi hi hai — yai ! 
72 



Early Forms of Epic 

those already examined j 1 the dances are dramatic, imitating 
the events that are celebrated in the songs, and supplement- 
ing the broken narrative. This is shown in the seventeen 
known Navajo ceremonials, where, we are told, masquer- 
ade, dance, and song are constituent elements. 2 The same 
composite character is to be seen in the snake dance, 3 in 
the war dances, 4 in the arrow dance, 5 and throughout the 
great variety of such public exhibitions. 

A fair illustration of the character of the songs used on 
such occasions is afforded by the mountain chant of the 
Navajos. It is the dramatization of the story of Reared- 
Within-the-Mountain, a young Navajo who was captured 
by the Utes, but escaped from them by the intervention of 
the gods. His homeward journey was made under divine 
guidance, and his experiences were initiatory rites of a relig- 
ious character, which he was enjoined to give his people. 
Having done so, he went away to be with the gods. 

Each of the nine days which the ceremonial occupies is 
devoted to the presentation of his adventures, a presentation 
which is made more vivid by the use of sand-pictures. 

The coming of the new earth, and the noise it makes in its 
approach, is referred to in the following: 

Our father has come, 
Our father has come; 
The earth has come, 
The earth has come ; 
It is rising — Eyeye ! 
It is rising — Eyeye ! 
It is humming — Aheeye ! 
It is humming — Aheeye ! 

Mooney, op. cit., The Ghost-Dance Religion. 

*Cf. supra, pp. 43, 49, 50, 61, 65. 

2 Matthews, Navajo Legends, pp. 44 ff. — The maskers do not speak, 
but utter a cry and perform certain actions peculiar to the god 
represented. 8 Fewkes, Ethnol. Rep., 1894-95. 

4 Schoolcraft, Hist, of Indian Tribes in the United States, ii, p. 60. 

6 Posnett, Comparative Literature, p. 119. 

73 



A Study in Epic Development 

The songs are very numerous, and, so far as recorded, 
are divided into thirteen sets, with from seven to twenty- 
six songs in a set. These must be presented according to 
a certain sequence, although the story can not be said to 
progress. They retain the indeterminate character of im- 
provisations, either because they have been so strictly 
guarded in their transmission, or because they are the 
expression of what are still incomplete thoughts in the minds 
of the priests. 1 

1 For a full account of this ceremonial, see Matthews, Ethnol. Rep., 
1883-84. 

In the first song of the first dancers a god is speaking, the place 
where the Navajo emerged from the lower world 'looms up/ and 
black, blue, yellow, and white indicate the topographical position 
of the four mountains surrounding it. 

Place-whence-they-came-up looms up, 
Now the black mountain looms up, 
The tail of the yellow-wing looms up, 
My treasure, my sacrifice, loom up. 

Land-where-they-moved-out looms/ up, 
Now the blue mountain looms up, 
The tail of the hen-hawk looms up, 
My treasure, my sacrifice, loom up. 

Place-whence-they-came-up looms up, 
Now the yellow mountain looms up, 
The tail that is yellow looms up, 
My treasure, my sacrifice, loom up. 

Land-where-they-moved-out looms up, 
Now the white mountain looms up, 
The tail of the magpie looms up, 
My treasure, my sacrifice, loom up. 

The daylight songs are sung just at dawn, before the dance 
ceases. The Daylight Boy and the Daylight Girl are the dawn 
god and goddess : 

The curtain of daybreak is hanging, 
The Daylight Boy (it is hanging), 
From the land of day it is hanging; 
Before him, as it dawns, it is hanging, 

74 



Early Forms of Epic 

As to the narrative which has been subjected to popular 
transmissions, it is illustrated in the cycle of legends that 
grew up around the name of Hiawatha. In this leader the 

Behind him, as it dawns, it is hanging; 
Before him in beauty it is hanging, 
Behind him in beauty it is hanging. 
From his voice in beauty it is hanging. 

The Daylight Girl (it is hanging), 
From the land of the yellow light it is hanging; etc. 
(substitute her for him and his.) 

The following are some of the songs which deal with the experi- 
ences of the hero. While fleeing from his pursuers he was saved 
by a black mountain sheep which is supposed to be speaking : 

He stands high upon it, 

Now the Holy Young Man 

With the great plumed arrow, 

Verily his own sacred implement, 

His treasure, by virtue of which he is truly holy. 

The Young-Women- Who-Become-Bears are important characters, 
four of whom he met while on his travels : 

The-Maid-Who-Becomes-a-Bear walks far around 
On the black mountains, she walks far around. 
Far spreads the land, it seems not far (to her) ; 
Far spreads the land, it seems not dim (to her). 

The-Holy- Young-Woman walks far around 
On the blue mountains, she walks far around. 
Far spreads the land, it seems not far (to her) ; 
Far spreads the land, it seems not dim (to her). 

Maid-Who-Becomes-a-Bear sought the gods and found them, 
On the high mountain peaks she sought the gods and found them, 
Truly with my sacrifice she sought the gods and found them. 

Somebody doubts it, so I have heard. 

Holy- Young-Woman sought the gods and found them, 
On the summits of the clouds she sought the gods and found them, 
Truly with my sacrifice she sought the gods and found them. 

Somebody doubts it, so I have heard. 



75 



A Study in Epic Development 

Indians possessed a hero whose real character was of a 
nature to arouse grateful enthusiasm and to awaken national 
reverence. He was remembered among many of them as 
the author of the great peace which lasted among the con- 
federated Iroquois for three centuries; 1 but it was through 
the promise which, tradition says, he made when he went 
away, that his memory was especially cherished, for he said 
that he would come. again when his people had most need 
of him. To the devotees of the ghost-dance his promise 
seemed fulfilled in the coming of the prophet of the Paiutes. 
In the legends that relate to Hiawatha's life we have the 
beginning and end of a possible epic. He first appeared in 
a snow-white canoe, on the shore of Lake Ontario; he 
ascended the river at Oswego, removing from his way all 
that obstructed it, whether of a natural or of a supernatural 
character. The end came as he stood in the midst of the 
chiefs after the League had been established. He knew that 
he was called away, and, having spoken words of counsel 
to his fellows, he ascended to heaven in his white canoe, amid 
'the sweetest melody of celestial music'., 2 , Other incidents of 
his life are given in legend; they are contributed from dif- 
ferent tribes, and give testimony to the national interest he 
aroused; they are not presented in connected shape, but 
neither are they wholly urelated, and their existence is a 
testimony to the Indian's growing conception of unity in his 
literature — a conception which is in harmony with his efforts 
towards unity in his political organization. 



We have found that those peoples which have advanced 
beyond the clan into the wider tribal organization have 
made a corresponding advance in their literature. Where 
they have shown a tendency to separate the individual from 
the mass, and to raise him to a position of prominence and 



1 Hale, Iroquois Book of Rites, pp. 32 ff. 
3 lb., Appendix, note D. 



76 



Early Forms of Epic 

responsibility in the political life, they have also manifested 
the same tendency in the selection of representative figures 
for the subjects of their songs. 1 



IV. Monarchies. 

The body of more or less artificial poetry, which is pro- 
duced by a savage race by the time it has reached a mon- 
archical phase of development, may crowd into the back- 
ground the popular song, and render an investigation of its 
form difficult. The royal court is the centre of the national 
life, and the royal master has his retinue of minstrels, whose 
first duty is to celebrate his exploits. It is the songs of these 
minstrels which are most accessible in the savage kingdoms, 
but they can not always be considered the embodiment of 
the people's artistic conception ; for such poets have become 
courtiers; they are no longer the mouthpiece of the mass, 
but deliberately fashion their work to please an indi- 
vidual. The nature of at least a portion of their poetic 
creations is indicated by the epithets bestowed upon the 
autocratic Zulu king in a song in which he is celebrated for 
his preeminent strength, courage, and riches, and for his 
ability to crush the heads of other kings. He is called 
'Liberator', 'Pillar', 'Bird of the Morning', 'The Purple 
Dawn of the Morning', the 'Only One Issuing Commands'. 2 

The popular song continues, however, among monarchic 
peoples, by the side of the artificial product, and the exist- 
ence of improvisation and its composite character are 
attested by such songs as that which Mungo Park 3 heard 
the African women singing in the hut, after they had min- 
istered to his wants : 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 62 ff., 69, 75 ff. 

2 Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, pp. 310 ff. 

8 Cited by Jones, Africa, p. 45 ; cf. Burton, A Mission to Gelele, 
i, PP 46, 51. i7i, 213. 



77 



A Study in Epic Development 

The winds roared and the rains fell ; 
The poor white man, faint and weary, 

came and sat under our tree ; 
He has no mother to bring him milk, 

no wife to grind his corn. 1 

Moreover, certain of the songs which are carried in the 
memories of the wandering minstrels seem to preserve the 
character of improvisations. We are told of one in which 
the singer crawled on his hands and knees 'round and round, 
stealthily looking this side and that, giving the peculiar 
leopard-questing cough, and making the leopard mark in the 
earth with his doubled-up fist'. 2 The dramatic element is 
clear, but as to the presence of the narrative or of the lyrical 
quality, we have only, as is usual in similar cases, the descrip- 
tion from which to determine it. 

I. The national celebrations of the monarchical peoples 
preserve the combination of song and dance which has been 
found in the national celebrations of the less advanced peo- 
ples. In the West African monarchy of Dahomey they are 
found in the terrible butcheries attendant upon the Grand 3 

1 He had been prohibited by the King of Bambara from crossing 
the Niger, and had been ordered to a distant village. Having gone 
there, he found that none of the natives would receive him into their 
houses. 'Faint and weary', and unsheltered from the storm, he was 
preparing to lodge in the branches of a tree, when a woman, return- 
ing from her work in the field, invited him to her hut for food and 
shelter. 

2 These ministrels go about carrying a song-net, to which is tied 
all manner of things, and each object has its especial song. To one 
was tied a human hand and a human jaw-bone. It was the human- 
hand song in which the singer imitated the leopard movement. — 
Mary H. Kingsley, West African Studies, pp. 149 ff. 

3 Ellis, The Ewe-Speaking Peoples of West Africa, pp. 121 ff. 

A Grand Custom is held after the death of a king. The sacri- 
fice of human beings is to provide attendants for the dead monarch 
that he may continue to live in exalted state 'in Dead-land.' 'At a 
Grand Custom held in 1791 for Adanzu II, five hundred victims 
are said to have been sacrificed.' Other instances are given, which 
fall within the present century, where the number of victims is said 

78 



Early Forms of Epic 

Customs ; they are also a part of the Annual Customs, 1 and 
in the Yam, 2 or Harvest, Custom the ceremonies are mixed 
with the rites of phallic worship. The dramatic character 
of the exhibitions is apparent at first glance, and the blending 
of the lyric and the narrative in the songs is clear. 3 

to be greater, but is not definitely stated. Cf. Forbes, Dahomey and 
the Dahomans, ii. 

1 Ellis, op. cit., pp. 130-138. 

The Annual Custom is designed for the purpose of sending 
periodically fresh supplies of victims to the dead kings. 

2 lb., p. 90. 

The Yam, or Harvest, Custom is a festival held as a thanksgiving 
to the gods for having protected and matured the yam crop. 

8 An illustration of the celebrations, selected from among many 
which might be given, is to be found in the oath-taking ceremony of 
the Amazon army. The king sits on his war-stool, and the Amazon 
regiments are bivouacked near by. A herald calls : 

Ah! Haussoo-lae-beh, Haussoo! 
Oh, King of Kings! 

A regiment advances before the throne, salutes, and an officer steps 
forward and swears in the name of the regiment, that if they go 
to war they will conquer or die. 

Have we not conquered all the province of Mahee? 

So will we always conquer or die. 

Then a second officer comes forward and says : 
When the Attahpahms heard we were advancing, they ran away, 
If we go to war and any return not conquerors, let them die. 
If I retreat, my life is at the King's mercy. 

Whatever the town to be attacked, we will conquer or bury our- 
selves in its ruins. 

Then a third comes forward and says : 
We are eighty, and of the right brigade, never yet known to turn 

our backs to the enemy. 
If any one can find fault with us, young or old, let us know it. 

Then the Amazons sing in chorus : 
We marched against Attahpahms as against men. 
We came and found them women. 
What we catch in the bush we never divide. 

They salute the king, and the regiment marches off to be followed 
by other regiments in their turn. — Forbes, op. cit., pp. 106 ff. 

79 



A Study in Epic Development 

2. In what are regarded as the most ancient ceremonials 
of the Peruvians, the union of song and dance is preserved. 
They are combined in the feast of the Sun, which was the 
greatest Peruvian festival, and here the dances are described 
by Garcilaso de la V^ega 1 as being of different fashion, 
because of the 'several insignia, masks, and dresses used by 
each nation'. Moreover, in the stately dance of the Incas 
we are told that the king himself took part, and joined in the 
accompanying songs which praised his famous ancestors. 2 
Again, it was the custom 3 of the people to go out with dance 
and song to meet returning conquerors; after worship 
and thanks in the temple of the Sun, they all went to the 
principal square of the city, where each tribe in turn rose up 
and danced and sang before the king according to the 
fashion of its country. 

Whatever may have been the original dramatic signifi- 
cance of these dances, however, it was probably forgotten in 
the time of Garcilaso, for at that time their form was abso- 
lutely fixed, 4 while the body of songs used on such occasions 
was continually increased through the efforts of the profes- 
sional poets. The poetry of the Peruvians, of which he tells 
us, had attained a maturity in which special forms were dis- 
tinguished and cast in special molds. Tragedies and come- 
dies were presented before the king on great festivals ; the 
tragedies dealing with the triumphs and grandeur of former 
kings and other heroic men, the comedies confining them- 
selves to agricultural and household subjects. The poets 
were skilful in different measures, and discriminating in 
giving the song appropriate accompaniment. Thus, we are 
told, 5 'they did not play the songs composed to celebrate 
their warlike deeds, because they were not fit to play before 
ladies, nor to express on their flutes ; but they were sung at 
their principal festivals in memory of their victories'. 

As to their traditions, they were put into narrative form 
by the learned men, and were 'told to the children and the 

1 Commentaries, ii, pp. 155-167. 2 lb., ii, pp. 420 ff. 

8 lb., ii, pp. 145 ff- *Ib-> ii, P- 420. ° lb., i, pp. 193 ff- 

80 



Early Forms of Epic 

youths, and to the common people ; so that by passing from 
one to another they might be preserved in the memories 
of all'. 1 

Garcilaso himself tells us that he obtained the material of 
his history chiefly from the orally transmitted traditions of 
his mother's people, and he gives a pathetic picture of the 
vanquished Incas who frequented his mother's house, and 
told over again and again the origin of their race and the 
grandeur of their empire. 'They omitted nothing', he says, 
'relating to the flourishing period of their history' ; then, 
turning to their present condition, 'they mourned for their 
dead kings, their lost rule, their fallen state', and always 
concluded their recitals 'with tears and mourning, saying, 
"We are turned from rulers into vassals" !' 

An examination of Garcilaso's History shows that there 
was an unmistakable centering of events about the figures of 
the kings ; the incidents in the lives of each were recorded 
by the poets. But there was, beyond this, a tendency to 
refer to the first Inca as the source of the empire's greatness. 
No laws were instituted or ceremonies ordained that did not 
look to him for their origin ; 2 we are told in different tradi- 
tions how he introduced certain fashions and customs f 
again, when he heard his father, the Sun, calling him away, 
how he gave to his chief vassals the use of his royal name 
that they might be known and honored by all as his sons; 4 
again the details are given of his death, and his wise 
words of advice ; then the many days of mourning that fol- 
lowed are described, together with the worship he received 
from the people, to whom he was lord of all earthly things. 

While these traditions were preserved by a distinct caste, 
the method of their preservation did not necessarily demand 
for them rigidity of form, although it must have restrained 
them within certain limits. 5 Thus we find that the legends 

1 lb., ii, pp. 124 ff. 

2 lb., i, pp. 132 ff. z Ib., i, pp. 84 ff. "lb., i, p. 88. 

8 lb., ii, pp. 124 ff. The Quipus, or knotted strings, recorded 
events in their order, and what the knots were unable to record was 
cast into verse and orally transmitted. 

81 



A Study in Epic Development 

relating to the origin of the Incas, which came from different 
provinces in the empire, although varying in particulars, yet 
show substantial agreement. 1 

It would seem that these legends were transmitted by both 
populace and artists, and that they lie within both the natural 
and the artificial zones, but the inclination to exalt a central 
hero represents a common tendency. 

In the representative character of the hero, in his nation- 
alization, the Peruvians show an advance in their narrative 



1 There were three legends respecting the origin of the Incas, but 
they all united in celebrating the same man as the first of the kings. 
The one given by Garcilaso had been preserved in the royal family, 
and was told to him by one of the royal blood. According to it, 
'Our Father the Sun' looked down and saw the human race living 
like wild beasts in caves and clefts of the rocks, or in caverns under- 
ground. They were without religion or government, or town or 
house; they knew nothing about cultivating the land, or of clothing 
their bodies ; they ate herbs and roots and fruits, and also human 
flesh; they lived in herds, like deer or other game, and knew not 
separate wives. 

Our Father the Sun had compassion on them, and sent down 
from heaven a son and a daughter to give them precepts and laws, 
to instruct them in knowledge of Him, to make of them rational 
beings instead of beasts. 

Our Father the Sun placed his two children in Lake Titicaca, and 
gave them a sceptre of gold. He told them they might go where 
they pleased, but wherever they ate or slept they were to thrust 
the sceptre into the ground. Where it should sink down and dis- 
appear, there it was his desire that they should remain and estab- 
lish their court. He enjoined upon them to make of themselves a 
likeness and reflection of Him; as He went over the earth each 
day, giving light, warmth, and increase, they were to become sus- 
tainers and benefactors to the people they should overcome. 

After much traveling the children of the Sun came to the valley 
of Cuzco, and there, on a hill, the sceptre of gold buried itself in 
the ground, and was never again seen. 

From this point the first rulers set out in different directions to 
call the people together; they told how they had been sent and 
why, and the people believed them and worshiped them, and obeyed 
them as kings, and set out to follow them wheresoever they might 
lead. 



82 



Early Forms of Epic 

over the songs transmitted by less developed peoples. 1 
Their hero is no longer one among many individuals, about 
each of whom dangle freely separate incidents that are with- 
out organic relation ; nor does he share his prominence with 
others; he has become preeminent, and there is a certain 
logical sequence in the development of the events that center 
about him. In the celebration of Hiawatha 2 the North 
American Indians show a tendency to acknowledge a repre- 
sentative hero, but in the celebrations of the first Inca this 
representative character is intensified ; he is the founder of 
the nation, and the source of all its customs and laws; he 
has drawn to himself the glories of his successors, and has 
been elevated into a national ideal. 

3. The national observances of the Mexican monarchies 
united the dance and the song, involving sometimes in the 
ceremony many thousands of men. 3 A similar combination 
is to be found to-day in the united dance and song with 
which the people in the Mexican villages commemorate the 

Then the princes showed the people how to build the city of 
Cuzco, and how to cultivate the ground, how to make the neces- 
sary implements, how to construct irrigating canals, how to weave 
and to sew and to make clothing ; in fine, they were taught every- 
thing that is useful in life. The Inca was king and master of the 
men, his wife was queen and mistress of the women. 

The Indians who had been brought under their rule went out 
themselves into the mountains and wildernesses, and spread the 
news of the children of the Sun, and the wild people came in great 
numbers to serve and to obey them. 

Then the Inca taught the people to make and to use arms, and 
he extended his empire in all directions by conquest, and built up 
villages within his domain. 

'These were our first Incas and kings, who appeared in the first 
ages of the world, from whom descended the other kings who have 
ruled over us, and from these again we are all descended.' — Con- 
densed from Commentaries, i, pp. 63 ff. 

*Cf. supra, pp. 44, 46, 51, 53, 62. 
2 Cf. supra, pp. 75 ff. 

8 Sahagun, Hist, generate des choses de la Nouvelle Esp., p. 867. 
Cited by Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, Introd. 

83 



A Study in Epic Development 

deeds of saints and Biblical characters instead of the old 
gods and heroes. 1 It is evident that the songs used in the 
celebrations centered about prominent figures, and that 
these celebrations retained the mixed character which has 
been found in the performances of more primitive peoples. 

The professional poets in Mexico were subjected to the 
strictest discipline, 2 and a body of polished, artificial poetry 
was the result. A division is made by Sahagun between 
this poetry and that which seems to be of a popular charac- 
ter; he tells us that the more important songs were written 
down in their books and taught to the youth in the schools, 
but the composition of ordinary poets was only disseminated 
orally. 3 

We have not^ however, been able to obtain a definite con- 
ception of the stage of artistic development to which the 

1 In the Introduction to The Gueguence, Brinton cites the his- 
torian, Fernandez de Oviedo, who was in Nicaragua in 1592, as 
authority for statements as to the dramatic representations of the 
natives. 

In 1856 Don Jose Antonio Urrutia wrote also: x 'In most of the 
Indian towns the custom is still general of preserving a knowledge 
of great events in their history by means of representations called 
bailes, which are, in fact, dances in the public squares on the days 
or evenings of great solemnities.' — Cited by Brinton, Ancient 
Nahuatl Poetry, Introd. 

2 Not only the rulers, but the chief men of the nobility main- 
tained their company of dancers and singers, and took a personal 
interest in their proficiency. We are told that 'did any one of the 
choir sing falsely, a drummer beat out of tune, or a dancer strike 
an incorrect attitude, the unfortunate artist was instantly called 
forth, placed in bonds, and summarily executed the next morning.' — 
Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, Introd. 

Prescott tells us of a general board of education to which must 
be submitted all works of science or art before they could be made 
public. On stated days competitors appeared before the board, and 
to the successful one was awarded a prize. A wilful perversion 
of historical truth was made a capital offense. — Conquest of Mexico, 
i, p. 172. 

3 Cited by Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, Introd. 



84 



Early Forms of Epic 

people brought the popular song. It is possible to cull out 
from the Popol Vuh, that oldest monument of their litera- 
ture, connected stories of individuals and of events, as is the 
case with the sacred writings of other nations, but, as a 
whole, it can not be considered as representative of the 
people's later ideals, since it was preserved by a sacerdotal 
class, with as little alteration as possible. Our knowledge 
of the body of the popularly transmitted poetry among the 
Mexicans is too limited to warrant anything further than 
very general conclusions. 

It is evident that a study of the literary manifestation of 
the primitive monarchical peoples is unsatisfactory, if it 
is undertaken for the purpose of following the growth of 
popular poetry. As has been said, among such peoples lit- 
erature has attained to a certain degree of artificiality, and 
the natural song retires into obscure places, and is scarcely 
yet known except by description. While this is the case, in 
the limited data available there are decided indications of 
an increased tendency to create a national centre in their 
narrative literature, as they have done in their political 
constitution; but even if there were no data at hand, such 
a result might be inferred from the steady progress in that 
direction which marks the successive phases of preceding 
political development, and the inference would find further 
confirmation in the songs produced by the different portions 
of the Germanic race. 

From the facts presented, the following conclusions seem 
warranted : 

i. In its beginnings literature does not exhibit a differen- 
tiation of the specific forms. The germs of narrative, lyric, 
and dramatic poetry may be traced to the first undefined 
literary product. 1 

2. The confusion of type is not confined to the improvisa- 
tions of the most primitive peoples. It is a characteristic of 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 43 ff., 45 ff., 49 ff., 53 ff. 

85 



A Study in Epic Development 

literary beginnings, whether among primitive or advanced 
peoples. 1 

3. There is a close correspondence between the tendency- 
shown in the natural development of the form of narrative 
literature, and the form of the political constitution, since 
both are an expression of the people's ideal, and the direct 
creation of the people's spirit. 2 

4. The earliest literary product is a disjointed and form- 
less manifestation, 3 parallel in its indistinctness to the indefi- 
nite organization of the clan. As the people advance 
towards the more centralized tribal organization, and recog- 
nize a political head, they manifest also a tendency to elevate 
certain representative figures in their legends. 4 When a 
consciousness of nationality has been aroused, and the tribes 
have found a basis for unity, this unity finds expression in a 
national ideal in their songs. 5 The progress of the narrative 
is from a formless expression, without plan or predomina- 
ting incident or figure, towards a form in which a plot is 
developed, and in which incidents and figures group them- 
selves with reference to their relative importance to a cen- 
tral idea or hero. 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 56 ff., 61 ff., 64 ff., 69 ff., 78. 

2 Cf. supra, pp. 60, 76, 85. 

3 Cf. supra, pp. 43 ff., 46 ff., 48 ff., 50 ff., 52 ff. 
4 Cf. supra, pp. 62 ff., 69, 75 ff. 

5 Cf. supra, pp. 82 ff. 






CHAPTER TWO 

The Germanic Epic and Government. 

Philological research has brought out the fact that, before 
the Germanic race had left its Aryan home, it had passed 
beyond its primitive savagery, and had developed the ele- 
ments of a settled social existence. 1 As to its literature, 
when the race appeared in history it was already in pos- 
session of a body of song which gives evidence of high 
antiquity; moreover, that the song contained narrative ele- 
ments is evident from the testimony of Tacitus 2 that in it 
the people had preserved the memory of their ancient origin 
and their heroes. The only heroes who have survived to us 
are Arminius 3 and their Hercules, 4 but the fact that the 
people united in celebrating these indicates not only that 
certain individuals had been raised above the common level, 
but also that a consciousness of national existence had been 
awakened. 

From the description of Tacitus the tendencies of the 
government are easier to ascertain than those of the narra- 
tive literature. From his account of the literature we can 
only draw the general conclusion that the songs were center- 
ing about prominent personages, but from his more detailed 
discussion of the political conditions further conclusions are 
admissible. It is apparent that there were, at the time of 
which Tacitus wrote, two diverging tendencies present in 
the political life of the people ; one of these was directed 
towards the preservation of the individual's independence, 
and the other towards its limitation. 

1 Tylor, Archaeology. Appendix to Wilson's Anthropology, p. 
52 (Humboldt Library, no. 71). 
1 Get -mania, iii. 'Annates, ii, 88. * Germania, ii. 

87 



A Study in Epic Development 

I. Early Tendencies of the Germanic Race. 

The right of the individual to independence was recog- 
nized in the national assemblies, although at the same time 
the difference in rank was carefully regarded. Thus we are 
told that while in the assembly the chief spoke first, and 
afterwards the great men in their turn, their power was 
exercised through persuasion; they could not command. 
If the people were pleased with the advice, they made known 
their approval; if it was displeasing, it was rejected. 
Again, in these assemblies princes were chosen to act as 
magistrates in the various towns and villages, but each 
of these princes was furnished with a number of assistants 
selected from the body of the people. 1 The respect for indi- 
vidual independence found further illustration in the manner 
of life. The people dwelt 'discreti ac diversi' wherever 
spring or grove or plain attracted them, 2 even the slave liv- 
ing in his own house apart from his master. 3 But, on the 
other hand, the man of rank surrounded himself by a body of 
chosen warriors, who received from him arms, horses, rai- 
ment, and food. The warriors vied with him in deeds of 
valor, recognizing at the same time their obligation to 
defend him, and to make their own actions subservient to 
his renown. A spirit of rivalry for the favor of the chief 
existed among them, and he determined the degrees of their 
rank according to his judgment. 4 Thus the individual 
became dependent upon the will of his superior. 

These tendencies, which lie at the base of the governments 
that were gradually developed by the Germanic race, show 
different degrees of strength in the different tribes, even 
while they remain at home ; but after they have gone abroad, 
and have organized themselves into separate nationalities, 
there appears the full development of what in the records of 
Tacitus had been only outlined. Moreover, the opportunity 
is then given to trace a clear parallel between the influence 

1 lb., vii, xi, xii. 2 lb., xvi. 

3 lb., xxv. 4 lb., xiii, xiv. 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

of these tendencies upon the government and upon the nar- 
rative literature. 

II. Incomplete Literary and Political Developments. 

Between the period of distinct national development, to 
which few of the tribes attained, and the period of which 
Tacitus writes, there was a growth of song, some character- 
istics of which may be known from historical records. 1 

I. Jordanes, the historian of the Goths, writing about the 
middle of the sixth century, tells us that his people sang the 
deeds of their ancestors to the accompaniment of the lyre; 2 
that they remembered their teacher, Diceneus, in their 
songs ; 3 and that from the same source the genealogy of the 
powerful Amals was given, 4 linking the heroes by direct 
line of descent with the gods. 5 In these songs there is 
clearly a continuation of the same forms which Tacitus 
found in existence among the Germanic people. Jordanes 
traces the migrations of the Goths from that great northern 
island, Scandia, under the leadership of their king Berig. 
He tells of their sojourns, wanderings, and final occupancy 

1 The early dramatic element in the literature may be inferred from 
the survival of ceremonials similar to those which have among other 
races been found to be of a dramatic character. The existence of 
these ceremonials is attested by the edicts of the Church that were 
directed against them. Thus the council of Autun (573-603) which 
exercised authority over the Merovingian kingdom, forbade the 
heathen choral dancing, and the dancing and singing of girls in the 
churches. — Concilia Aevi Merovingici (Ed. Maassen, p. 180). 

The Council of Chalons-sur Saone (639-654) sent out practi- 
cally the same decree (Maassen, p. 272), and again it is found in 
the Dicta Abbatis Priminii (Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, 
pp. 176, 188). 

We find that in the beginning of the eleventh century the Church 
had set the seal of its approval upon certain of the 'pagan rites' 
(Friedberg, Axis dcxitschcn Bxissbiichcrn, p. 84), and traces of their 
continuance may be followed into modern times. 

See Koegel, G esc hie lite der deutsclxcn Littcratur, i, 1, pp. 24-30. 

2 De Reb. Get., v. 

* lb., xi. * lb., xiii, xiv. ■ lb., iv. 



A Study in Epic Development 

of the land of the Scythians. These things, he says, are 
related in their ancient poetry almost in the form of history. 1 
It is evident that the Goths had in their memories a con- 
nected story of their national existence; they had gone 
beyond the savage childhood of a race where there are only 
broken remembrances of the past. 

Nor does the connected historical narrative mark the point 
to which they had advanced in their literary progress ; they 
were able, in concentrating attention upon single incidents, 
to develop the story, to place its elements in causal relation 
to one another, and to lift the outlines of a plot from the 
even flow of the song. This is illustrated by the story Jor- 
danes tells of the woman Sanielh, torn to pieces by the 
horses of Ermanaric, and avenged by her brothers, Sarus 
and Ammius. 2 It is the same story which appears later in 
the Northern Hamdismal, 3 which enters also into the cycle 
of the Wolsungs, 4 and of which the final scene is painted 
on Bragi's shield. 5 There is an indication that it was 
known to some singer of the Beozvulf, who compares the 
necklace given to the hero with the one which Hama bore off 
when fleeing from Eormanric's cunning craftiness, 6 and it 
is found in the history of Saxo Grammaticus. 7 From its 
widespread popularity we may infer that it was known 
also to Jordanes in the form of a song, but even if it was 
not, its presence in his history shows that in the sixth cen- 

1 Cf. with the genealogical song of which Tacitus speaks, Ger., ii : 
Celebrant carminibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos memoriae 
et annalium genus est) Tuistonem Deum terra editum et filium 
Mannum originem gentis conditoresque. 

For comparison of this song with the genealogical songs of dif- 
ferent Germanic tribes see Kurth, Hist, poetique des Merovingiens, 
pp. 85-99. 

2 Cf . Koegel, op. cit., i, 1, pp. 146 ff. ; i, 2, pp. 212 ff. 

3 Cf. Vigfusson and Powell, Corpus poeticum boreale, i, p. 53. 

4 The Whetting of Gudrun and The Lay of Hamdir. 

5 Vigfusson and Powell, op. cit., ii, pp. 2 ff. 
6 ii97-i20o; cf. Koegel, op. cit., i, 1, pp. 148 ff. 
7 Bk. 8. 



00 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

tury the epic material was clearing itself of confusion in the 
minds of the Goths. 

If, also, an original Gothic story is the basis of Ekkehard's 
Waltharius, as careful investigation 1 shows to be probable, 
the Goths must have developed this power of selection and 
sense of causality as early as the fifth century, when Aqui- 
tania, to which Walther belonged, was a part of the West- 
Gothic kingdom in Spain. 2 Further, the identification of 
the Dietrich 3 of the Middle High German poets with the 
Dietrich whose exile is mentioned in Deor's Lament? in the 
Hildebrandslied, 5 and in the fragment of the old English 
Waldere? traces to Gothic origin a far-reaching cycle. 

2. While the other branches of the Germanic race were 
equally remarkable for their love of song, the records are 
not always sufficiently clear to determine its character. 
When, in the sixth century, Gelimer, the last Vandal king in 
Africa, was conquered, and was suffering from hunger and 
want, he begged a harp from the chief of the Heruli that he 
might sing to it the story of his misfortunes. 7 The nature 
of his subject would indicate that his song was of blended 
narrative and lyric character; the story of his misfortunes 
would require the one, his personal feelings render the other 



1 Cf. Koegel, op. cit., i, 2, p. 286. 

2 For references to Walther as the Spaniard see Koegel, op. cit., 
i, 2, p. 286. 

3 Cf. Dietrich's Ahnen, Dietrich's Flucht, Der kleine Rosengarten, 
Alp hart's Tod, etc. 

4 15-20. The noble Goths were homeless (landless) so that their 
yearnings took away from them sleep. Dietrich for thirty years 
held the Maeringaburg ; that was well known. 

5 18, 19. Formerly he eastward went, fled Ottacar's (Eormanric's) 
malice, 
Hence with Theodric and his thanes many. 

8 In the beginning of the second fragment, Gunther is speaking 
to Walther of the sword which Theodric himself sent to Widia, 
'and also a great treasure of jewels with the sword/ because Widia 
had set him free from captivity. 

7 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xli. 



9i 



A Study in Epic Development 

probable; but beyond conjecture is the inference that he was 
accustomed to express himself in song. 

3. The Franks had also their body of narrative song, for 
it was their hero, Siegfried, who, mixed with Burgundian 
tradition, became the hero of the Nibelungenlied. The 
existence of their songs in the eighth century is attested by 
Eginhard's 1 statement that Charlemagne himself was familiar 
with those in which the exploits and the wars of the first 
princes were celebrated. Further, in the historical accounts 
of Gregory of Tours and of Fredegar, and in the Gesta 
Re gum Francorum, are traces of epic recitals. 

There is apparently the outline of such a recital in the 
story 2 of the wife of Clodion, and of the birth of her son, 
Meroveus, from whom the Merovingian name was derived. 
There is a clearer manifestation of the underlying song in 
a legend 3 of Childeric and Basina ; further, incidents in the 
life of Childeric, in addition to being given with slight vari- 
ations by the three historians mentioned, are found later in 
the differentiated French and German epic songs. 4 

1 Vita Car., 29. 

2 Rajna, Le origini dell' epopea franqese, p. 51. 

Meroveus was the son of the queen and of a sea-god. 

3 Rajna, op. cit., pp. 59 ff. ; Koegel, op. cit., i, I, p. 123; Kurth, 
op. cit., pp. 179 ff. Childeric, forced because of his dissolute life 
to flee from his own land, found refuge at the court of Thuringia. 
Before his flight he had divided a piece of gold with a faithful 
follower, who had promised to appease the people, and, when the 
proper time should have come for the king to return to his country, 
to send him the half of the gold-piece. After eight years he was 
permitted to come back as king. A little later Basina, queen of 
Thuringia, came to join him. When asked by him why she had 
made so long a journey, she answered; 'It is because I know thy 
valor. If I had believed that there was any one, even across the 
sea, who could excel thee, it is to him I should have given myself.' 
Childeric gladly made her his wife, and she bore him a son whom 
she called Clovis ; this son was a great and powerful warrior. — 
Greg., ii, 12. 

4 Rajna, op. cit., pp. 52 and 68: G. Paris, Romania, xiii, p. 603; 
Kurth, op. cit., pp. 186 ff. 

92 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

An almost unbroken chain of such material may be traced 
among the Franks from the time of their entrance into Gaul, 
having in it various central figures as the subjects of celebra- 
tion. From the time of Clovis these song-centres become 
clearer, a tendency towards the absorption of minor charac- 
ters appears, and the consequent exaltation of one hero to the 
exclusion of the many. From the time of Clovis, also, the 
fusion of different elements marks the beginning of a new 
nation. 1 The literary development will be followed in con- 
nection with the growth of the nation. 

4. The Germanic bands that passed over into Britain 
carried with them their narrative songs. There is abundant 
evidence of this in the W alder e, the Finnsburg lay, and the 
Beowulf. The fragments of the W alder e deal with the story 
which is the basis of Ekkehard's Waltharius, and point 
back to the songs of the continental life. The Finnsburg 
fragment deals also with the time that precedes the migra- 
tion to England; it places us in the midst of the struggle 
between the Danes and the Frisians. The events that were 
connected with the struggle were perhaps made clear in the 
lost part of the poem. They were, at least, known to a 
Beowulf poet, who reduces the song to the position of an 
episode. 2 The Beowulf, although in its present form an 
emanation from the Anglo-Saxon people, has, incorporated 
in it, many incidents which were the subject of individual 
songs. The end of the feud between the Danes and the 
Heathobards, which was temporarily adjusted 3 by the be- 
trothal of Hrothgar's daughter to the son of Frotha, is told 
by Widsith. 4 In Saxo Grammaticus 5 the story is given with 
further details, and the fiery words of the old warrior who 
would stir up Ingeld to avenge his father are given in the 
form of song. The story of the fierce Thrytho, of Offa, G 
known to Widsith 7 as a king of the Angles and the greatest 

1 CI G. Paris, La lit. franqaise ou moyen age, p. 25. 
1 1 068- 1 159. '2032-2069. 4 45-49. 

•Bk. 6. 6 i93i-i902. 7 35- 



93 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

of heroes, of Hrethel, 1 crushed by the sorrows of his house, 
are all incidents through which the Beowulf bears testimony 
to the Anglo-Saxon inheritance of song. 

In these separate songs the people had celebrated crises 
in the lives of different heroes, but in the Beowulf they have 
created a national hero, to whom the others are subordinated, 
and have developed a central theme, in relation to which the 
other incidents become episodes. The form of the Beowulf 
corresponds, however, to the early organization of the 
English nation, and will be considered in that connection. 

5. Germanic song had also a rich development among the 
Lombards, before the people became Romanized. Of their 
songs, Paul the Deacon has preserved enough to indicate 
the character. These songs show a keen sense of the dra- 
matic value of certain incidents in the lives of the heroes; 
they present a situation clearly, without blurring its out- 
lines. This power to select the essential elements of a 
story finds fair illustration in the Alboin lay that deals with 
the death of the king. Alboin had overthrown Cunimund, 
the Gepid king, and had taken away his daughter Rosamund 
to be his wife. One day, after he had been sitting too long 
at the banquet, he had wine served to the queen in her 
father's skull, and invited her to drink merrily with her 
father. Aroused by the insult, Rosamund resolved to 
avenge her father's death. In the fatal consequences in 
which her vengeance involved all the actors, there is the 
clear working out of a plot, which progresses steadily 
towards a definite end. 

This is but one of many illustrations 2 which may be drawn 

1 2425-2471. 

2 We are told, for example, the story of Rodolf, King of the 
Heruli. He had sent his brother to Tato, King of the Lombards, 
to negotiate concerning a treaty of peace. As the embassador with 
his followers, having accomplished his mission, is about to leave, 
he passes before the dwelling of the king's daughter, Rumetrud. 
She inquires who the noble company may be, and the name of the 
leader to whom such consideration is shown, and, having ascer- 



94 



A Study in Epic Development 

from the records of Paul the Deacon. Another Alboin 1 lay 
shows similar characteristics, and bears testimony also to the 
formation of a cycle of song with this king for a centre. 

6. Of the songs which correspond to this period of incom- 
plete political development in the existence of the Germanic 
people who remained at home, we have only one fragment 
remaining, but it is distinguished by characteristics similar 
to those already considered in connection with the product 

tained, she sends to invite him to enter her house, and to drink 
a cup of wine with her. He accepts the invitation, but she seems 
to have invited him only to mock at his small stature. He answers 
her scornful speech in kind, and arouses her anger; but she dis- 
sembles, and with smiling words places him with his back against 
a curtain that conceals an open window. At a given signal, her 
servants, whom she has privately instructed, attack him through 
the window, and he falls dying from his wounds. When this is 
reported to Rodolf, king of the Heruli, he breaks the treaty of 
peace that he may avenge the murder of his brother. In the battle 
which follows, Rodolf has such confidence in the bravery of his 
troops that he sits down to a game of draughts while the conflict 
is in progress. That he may get the earliest possible news of 
victory, he places a man in a tree near by to report the battle, but 
with the threat that he shall forfeit his life if he announces the 
defeat of the Heruli. To the king's repeated questions the man 
always answers that the Heruli are successful. Not until they are 
overthrown does he break out with 'Oh, woe to thee, miserable land 
of the Heruli ! the anger of the Lord of Heaven hath fallen upon 
thee.' Amazed, the king answers, 'My Heruli, they do not flee?' 
and the man, 'Not I, but thou thyself, oh king, hast said it/ The 
king fell and his army was destroyed, and so great was the con- 
fusion of the fleeing men that they mistook for water a blossoming 
field of flax, and while stretching out their arms to swim across, 
they were slain by the swords of their pursuers. — Paul. Diac, i, 
20; cf. Koegel, op. cit, i, 1, 11, ff. 

1 The Gepids and the Lombards have joined battle, and Alboin, 
son of Audoin, the Lombard king, has killed Turismod, son of 
Turisind, the Gepid king. The Gepids, seeing that he is dead for 
whose sake, in a great measure, they have entered upon the war, 
lose courage and flee. From conquest and spoiling of the slain, the 
Lombards come back to their king, and at the banquet which fol- 
lows they ask him to allow his son Alboin to be his companion at 



95 



A Study in Epic Development 

of other tribes. The Hildebrandslied has preserved a dra- 
matic climax in the life of Hildebrand and Hadubrand. It 
deals with a single adventure, and has lifted it above the 
encumbrance of unnecessary details. 

Although it seems scarcely more than the nucleus for an 
extended poem, its possibilities of expansion become appar- 
ent when it is considered in connection with the modern 
Sohrab and Rustum, which develops almost the same theme. 
It is the expression of a spirit which is yet limited to a nar- 
row horizon, but, as the view of the people widened, the 
form of their expression would inevitably change into a 
fuller narrative. With that widening view, however, oppos- 
ing influences were brought to bear upon the home-keeping 
Germans, which repressed the free development of the 
natural song. The culture which the Church introduced 
drove the native material far back among the masses of the 
people, and even there it did not escape foreign influence. 
The Hildebrand was left without further development, and 
its companion songs disappeared, except in so far as they 
were absorbed and preserved in the Nibehingenlied and the 
Gudrun. 



the table. But the king answers that he can not do this thing 
without breaking the custom of the Lombard folk, which demands 
that the king's son shall not sit down with his father before he 
shall have received weapons from the king of some other people. 
Alboin, having heard his father's words, takes forty young men 
of the Lombards, and goes to the Gepid king, whose son he 
has killed, and tells him the reason of his coming. Turisind 
welcomes him kindly, and seats him at his right hand at the feast, 
in his dead son's seat. But while the servants are serving at 
the tables, the king is overcome by his grief, and exclaims: 'Very 
dear to me is the place, but grievous it is to see him that is sitting 
therein.' Then the smothered rage of his warriors leaps up, and 
insult and open scoff involve the two sides in tumult, but the king 
thrusts himself between, saying that for a man to slay his guest is 
a deed unpleasing to God. And he gives to Alboin the weapons 
of Turismod, and sends him back unharmed into his father's 
kingdom. — Paul. Diac, i, 23, 24. 



06 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

J. The ancient songs to which Saxo Grammaticus avow- 
edly resorts when he would write the history of the Danish 
kings and heroes, and the paraphrases in prose and verse 
which his work contains, not only furnish additional testi- 
mony to the Germanic power of seizing upon eminent fig- 
ures and strong situations, but also indicate the favorite 
figures around which Germanic song was centering. The 
Eddie poems serve a similar purpose ; for, even if produced 1 
in the British Isles, and enriched by Christian and classic 
conceptions, they have behind them the orally transmitted 
songs, in which alone the old traditions found the means of 
preservation. 

It has already been noted that Saxo directs attention to 
the story of the Gothic Sanielh, 2 the popularity of which was 
indicated by frequent repetition; and that he gives in detail 
the words of the old warrior 3 who, in Beowulf, would arouse 
Ingeld to avenge his father. In the history of Saxo this 
warrior was the foster-father of Ingjald; he was the giant 
Starkath, whose head, after having been cut off, bit the 
grass. He appears as Starkad in the first of the Helgi lays 
of the Edda* and there his body fought on when his head 
was off. 

Moreover, we have different versions of the same story, 5 
in the Edda, where Helgi is the son of Sigmund, and in 
Saxo's work, where he is the son of Halfdan. In both he 
is a Danish king who kills Hothbrodd in defense of his 
kingdom. 



x The theory of Sophus Bugge; cf. his Home of the Eddie Poems, 
pp. xviii, ff. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 90. 3 Cf. supra, p. 93. 

* Vigfusson and Powell, op. cit., i, pp. 139 ff. 

5 The Edda introduces characters not known in Saxo's account, 
indicating that it is based upon a later version than that known by 
Saxo, although in its present form an earlier composition than 
Saxo's history; a testimony to the fact that back of each lie dif- 
ferent songs which must go yet farther back to seek a common 
source. Cf. Bugge, op. cit., pp. 144 ff. 



<>7 



A Study in Epic Development 

A sufficient number of examples has been given to indicate 
that a network of song connected the Germanic tribes, and 
fastened itself about certain prominent heroes who were the 
possession of the race. 

From such beginnings it is to be expected that well- 
rounded and proportioned epic products would result if 
allowed an opportunity to develop ; but there are few of the 
tribes to which such an opportunity came — certainly not to 
the Goths, Vandals, and Lombards, who were early lost in 
the shifting of the nations. On the other hand, the Franks 
became a strong element in the new nation which arose from 
the united populations in Gaul, and their songs became a 
part of the songs of the nation. While these cannot be con- 
sidered an uncontaminated Germanic development, they are, 
nevertheless, largely the product of the Germanic spirit, 
and offer opportunity for a study of the unfolding of Ger- 
manic tendencies — an opportunity which is also given 
through the songs that arose among the Germans at home, 
and through those which resulted from the migration of the 
tribes to Britain and to the Scandinavian lands. 

So far as the political development of the race has been 
followed, it has shown certain general characteristics. We 
have seen that at the time of which Tacitus wrote the people 
vigorously cultivated personal independence, but also dis- 
tinctly recognized inequalities in rank. They were living 
under an aristocratic form of society, and they preserved 
this form in whatever country they established themselves. 
But the two tendencies which had been outlined in the early 
Germanic life did not maintain their relative positions under 
the altered circumstances. It was impossible that they 
should. The tribes found themselves called upon to con- 
struct new governments in their acquired territories, and 
they did this by adapting their principles to those of the 
conquered race, or by absolute substitution for what they 
found in the conquered land; but even in the latter case 
their principles had to be adjusted to a wider field of action. 

98 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

Consequently, as the separate portions of the race gathered 
into national units, these tendencies, under the modified con- 
ditions, developed in varying proportions. 

As has been said, only a general correspondence can be 
noticed so far between the form of the narrative songs and 
the form of the political constitution. There is the same 
inclination to exalt certain individuals in each, and among 
some of the tribes which had advanced far towards a cen- 
tralized government, as the Goths and Lombards, there 
were indications of song-cycles in which the poems also look 
towards a centralizing figure. The tribes that grew into 
more stable nations did so through a fusion of sympathies 
and aspirations. The national spirit, which was the result 
of this fusion, found expression, politically and artistically, 
in forms that embodied its ideal. In the expression of this 
ideal is manifested the predominance of one or the other of 
the early opposing influences. 

III. Distinct National Developments. 
English. 

The colonization of England by the successive migra- 
tions of different tribes brought together a people which 
possessed a practical basis for unity in language, law, and 
religion, and which had been moved by a common desire 
for conquest and expansion. The expeditions had been 
conducted by different chiefs, and the result was the forma- 
tion of several states where the old ideas were continued, 
but necessarily modified through accommodating themselves 
to new conditions. The stronger of these states gradually 
absorbed the weaker, and the leaders of the latter became 
princes under the king who stood at the head of the districts. 
These conditions, which preceded and led towards the grad- 
ual establishing of the seven kingdoms, show a great 
advance towards national unity, but, as yet, no organized 
confederation. 

It is to this political situation, where within separate 
boundaries dwelt people of like language, habits, and ideas, 

99 



A Study in Epic Development 

that the poem Beozvulf corresponds in its development. It is 
not a perfectly unified piece of work ; nor, if it were, would it 
be in harmony with the ideal of the people as manifested in 
the form of their contemporary political organization; but 
the form, both of the poem and the government, shows a 
tendency towards unity. 

A comparison of the Beowulf with the Hildebrand reveals 
a difference which corresponds to the difference in the con- 
ditions of which they are the product. The irreducible 
form of narrative which finds exemplification in the Hilde- 
brand, is exchanged in the Beowulf for a freedom of expres- 
sion which involves a variety of allusions and comparisons. 
The change is in harmony with the enlarged horizon of the 
people. Their eyes have been opened not only to multiplied 
details in life, but also to the relations which exist between 
different events and between widely-separated individuals. 
The strength of Beowulf in overcoming Grendel is like that 
of Sigmund in slaying the dragon, 1 and is to be contrasted 
with the weakness of Heremod, 2 who became a burden to 
his people. While such incidents are introduced into the 
body of the poem, they are so subordinated to the principal 
action that they can not be said to make against its unity. 

The poem is, however, unmistakably lacking in unity. 
The principal action itself is not concentrated upon a single 
definite end. It leads up to one crisis in the cleansing of 
the mead-hall, and to another in the final struggle of Beo- 
wulf with the dragon. It is as though the adventures of 
Odysseus with the Cyclops had been made the theme of a 
song, and, after the escape of the hero had been recorded, 
there had been added a separate crisis in the slaying of the 
wooers. It is possible to believe that successive singers 
would have so modified and re-arranged the Beowulf that it 
would have attained to a well-proportioned epic form. If 
the final struggle with the dragon were the climax of the 
poem, the method employed by Odysseus of relating his 

1 Beowulf, 871-900. ' lb., 900-906. 

100 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

earlier adventures might be employed to subordinate the 
earlier crisis in the life of Beowulf. But the Beowulf was 
not left to an uninterrupted development in the hands of the 
singers. As the learning of Christianity penetrated among 
the people, it brought to their attention other heroes than 
those of their oral traditions ; and it not only furnished the 
people foreign subjects for their songs, it taught them also 
the method of writing them down. The result, so far as the 
Beowulf is concerned, is the preservation for us of an imper- 
fectly developed poem, which corresponds, in the unity it 
has attained, to the unity of the contemporary political life. 
As the influence of the Church became more pronounced, 
in so far as it affected the form of government, it im- 
pressed upon the people, through the example of ecclesias- 
tical councils, the benefit of united political action, and thus 
strengthened the tendency towards unity. But the corre- 
sponding literary expression is to be found in a Judith or a 
Christ, while the Beowulf is left behind as the monument 
of a national spirit which had not yet worked out a finished 
ideal. 

Icelandic. 

Though the migrations of the tribes to Britain separated 
them from their old associations, there had been no violent 
uprooting of their ideals. While their energetic spirits had 
sought wider fields for activity, the conditions had not 
been such as materially to disturb the development of the 
two Germanic tendencies. As the people adapted them- 
selves to the largeness and dignity of their new surround- 
ings, their ideals, while subjected to modification, developed 
simply and naturally. The Icelandic people also separated 
itself from the old associations, and transplanted its ideals 
into new soil ; but the circumstances surrounding the separa- 
tion were different from those under which the migrations 
to Britain took place. 

The Scandinavian people had inherited, in common with 
their Germanic kindred, the twofold tendency of the old 

IOI 



A Study in Epic Development 

Germanic life. They recognized distinctly the degrees of 
rank ; x their ideal of personal liberty did not include personal 
equality, but it could not adapt itself to a supreme authority. 
When, therefore, they saw the power of the king growing, 
under Harold Fairhair, at the expense of what they consid- 
ered the rights of the individual, a portion of the people 
refused to submit to the conditions, and sought in Iceland 
a refuge where they might enjoy their independence undis- 
turbed. As the retreat to Iceland was in itself a protest 
against the centralizing power of a king, they naturally 
cultivated and strengthened an inclination towards popular 
government. They fostered and developed one of their 
inherited tendencies, and suppressed the other. 

The preferred tendency was allowed among them to work 
itself out to its logical result; not that Iceland was cut off 
from the rest of Europe, but its isolation kept its people 
apart from the great social and political revolutions which 
involved other nations. The influence of the tendency was 
shown in the localizing of the Icelander's interests. The 
strongest bond of union between him and his fellows was 
their common protest against union — their common deter- 
mination that as individual chiefs they would be free. 
Naturally, the clashing of interests and of wills furnished 
them continual occupation; they were busy with private 
feuds, friendships, and revenges ; but it must be remembered 
that they were denied even the unifying diversions enjoyed 
by the Englishmen in the successive invasions of their sister 

1 Their conception of social distinctions is embodied in the Lay 
of Righ, in which the old Anse, Heimdal, walks three times over 
the earth. From his first visit come the thralls, from his second, 
the churls, and from his third the earls. To the earls belong the 
fine linen, the silken clothing, the wheaten loaves, the game and 
wine, the arts of war and government, and the knowledge of heal- 
ing. To the churls belong the goatskin coats and barley loaves, 
the veal and ale, the plowing, building, and carting. To the 
thralls belong coarse and tattered garments, bran bread loaves and 
buttermilk, faggot-bearing, fence-building, swine-tending, and goat- 
herding. — Vigfusson and Powell, op. cit., i, p. 234. 

102 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

nations, and they had not the task, as had the Franks, of 
making out of diversified elements a homogeneous people. 
They had only to maintain their ideal of individual inde- 
pendence. 

Under such conditions the horizon of the Icelander was 
necessarily contracted, and his ambitions limited. He had 
separated himself from the progress of the time, which lay 
through the very political processes in which he had refused 
to participate, and had deliberately fixed his attention upon 
the details of his personal existence. 

Since his interests were of such a nature, when he met 
with his fellows at Yule-feast or moot he found entertain- 
ment in the narration of incidents that illustrated his 
peculiar life. His recitals dealt with his present concerns, 
rather than with his old associations or with the doings in 
Asgard ; they depicted actual events rather than imaginative 
inventions, and the actual had in it distinctly the elements 
of prose. 

The saga grew out of these conditions, as the fitting 
expression of the Icelandic spirit. It celebrated the strength 
of the individual character; it made prominent individual 
friendship or enmity; it was characterized by the straight- 
forward simplicity which marked the individual life, and 
expressed with the exactness of the photographic artist the 
details of that life. 

The Icelander at the time of the migration was misled by 
no vague conception of what he desired. When he decided 
to withdraw himself from the world, he did so with absolute 
confidence in the justice of his principles, and in his own 
ability to maintain them. His vision was clear and his con- 
victions decided, and there was no indefiniteness about the 
results he attained, either in his government or in his litera- 
ture. His habit of looking at things as to him they really 
existed is illustrated in his treatment of the supernatural. 
He recognized that the visitation of spirits was within 
the limits of any man's possible experience, and since this 
was the case they were to be met by practical expedients. 



103 



A Study in Epic Development 

Thus we find in the Eyrbyggja Saga 1 that when the house- 
hold of Thorodd is disturbed by a monster, with the head of 
a seal-fish, 2 which rises through the floor, it is summarily 
disposed of by being driven down by a forge hammer, as 
a stake is driven into the earth. When spirits continue to 
persecute the household, by the advice of the priest Snorri 
judicial measures are instituted against them; they are 
accused individually of molesting the mansion and of injur- 
ing the inmates ; sentence of ejectment is pronounced upon 
them, and, although unwilling to depart, they submit. 2 

The conditions existing in Thorodd's house had some 
points in common with those in Hrothgar's hall when it was 
subjected to the devastations of Grendel, but it is difficult to 
imagine Beowulf substituting a legal process for the fierce 
struggle in which Grendel was overcome. 

In considering the saga it is impossible to select one as 
representative of all, although all have, as has been noted, 
certain qualities in common. Moreover, the written forms 
with which we deal may have been made to present more of 
order and progress in their arrangement than was to be 
found in the original oral traditions. But the original nar- 
ratives must have presented different degrees of order and 
progress, for the saga rests upon historical fact, and some 
lives develop in themselves more elements that make for 
unity than do other lives. We may consider, then, such a 
saga as the Viga-Glum, for example, representative of a 
certain class of the oral traditions. It may be said of it as 
was said of the Heracleid* — the poet imagines that because 
Glum was one man, the story of Glum must also be a unity. 
The progress of the plot is towards the death of the hero, 
but not towards any crisis. For twenty years he is the best 
man in Eyjafirth ; for twenty more there is no better man. 
He meets misfortunes, but they are not overwhelming; he 
appears in strong situations, as, when stone-blind, he rides 

1 For additional illustration of the treatment of the supernatural, 
cf. the fight with Glam and with the troll-wife, Grettir Saga, pp. 105 
ff., and 194 ff. 

2 PP- 535 ff- 3 Aristotle, op. cit., viii. 

104 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

out with a drawn sword under his cloak, hoping to slay at 
least one of his enemies before he dies ; but no one of these 
situations is the crisis of his life, and he dies quietly, not so 
great a man as he has been, yet a man of prominence still. 

There are other sagas of a more extended biographical 
character, where the life of the hero appears as the con- 
necting link between the records of his ancestors and those 
of his descendants. They find illustration in the story of 
Egil Skallagrimsson, which begins with the quarrel of Egil's 
grandfather with King Harold, and follows the course of 
events through the grandfather's and the father's lives ; then 
gives an account of Egil's adventures outside of Iceland ; 
then of his return and of his uneventful years at home until 
his death ; and ends with a brief account of his descendants. 
The last part is without adventure, and the narrative is 
distinctly lacking in progress towards a climax. 

But the unity of the saga does not always depend entirely 
upon its biographical character. In addition to the fact that 
it tells the whole life of a man, it deals sometimes with the 
chief actor in a tragedy, and there is a subordination of other 
events to a dominating interest. The Grettir Saga, for 
example, produces a sense of definite movement towards a 
particular result. It introduces many episodes which are 
unessential to the development of the theme, but through 
them all we do not lose sight of the fact that the doomed 
hero is moving towards his death. 

The Eyrbyggja Saga may be taken as a representative of 
another species of narrative. It can not be said to have any 
hero, although the pontifical life of the priest Snorri holds 
the incidents together ; but they remain as individual and 
disconnected stories, complete in themselves, and, when 
thrown together, constitute a narrative without any apparent 
motive. 

The story, 1 for example, that deals with the rival sorcer- 
esses, Katla and Geirrida, culminates in the contest between 
the two, where Katla's metamorphosis of her son is discov- 

>pp. 521-524. 
105 



A Study in Epic Development 

ered by Geirrida, and both he and his mother are seized and 
put to death. In like manner, the story 1 of the two Berser- 
ker men, who proved so much more troublesome than use- 
ful as retainers when brought by Verimond to Iceland, con- 
tains a definite plot. 

These illustrations, as well as those which might be drawn 
from the other sagas, indicate that the Icelander was better 
able to develop incidents than to subordinate them. His 
idea of combination seems to have been an aggregation of 
distinct episodes, which sometimes contributed to a definite 
end, but sometimes did not. 

This ability to develop the single incident has been seen 2 
to be present in the earlier Germanic recitals, but the results 
which the Icelander attained are far removed from those 
embodied in the earlier product. In the Hildebrand, for 
instance, the struggle in the mind of the father between his 
paternal love and his sense of honor is an elemental one, 
and the simple incident, if given the proper setting, has in 
it the power of universal appeal. On the other hand, the 
celebration of individual interests in the saga, the exact- 
ness and elaboration of personal details, the intense realiza- 
tion of the actual, while contributing to the pleasure of those 
who listened to the recital, lack the power of universal 
appeal. In the great Njal Saga, to which this statement 
is least applicable, the strength lies especially in the fact that 
its theme can be partially withdrawn from the local back- 
ground, and made to express the edict of that all-pervading 
spirit of law according to which man must suffer for evil 
done, although he may be its author inadvertently. 

Episodes are introduced into one saga from others, but 
the effect is different from that produced by a similar pro- 
cess in the Beowulf. 3 In the saga they are given with a dis- 
tinct regard for their importance in themselves, rather than 
with reference to their connection with the scheme as a 
whole, and consequently they maintain a clear independ- 
ence of the plot. This overlapping of the sagas does not in 

1 PP- 5 2 5 ff- 2 Cf. supra, pp. 90, 92 ff., 96. 3 Cf. supra, pp. 93 ff., 100. 

106 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

any way destroy the individuality of the hero, who maintains 
a lofty position of superiority, but who can no more deny to 
the characters which chance to touch upon his life the priv- 
ilege of a fight, a lawsuit, and a funeral, than he could deny 
it to them in his actual experience. Nor does the connection 
between the sagas suggest the possibility of evolving from 
them a great national saga. There is no one of the old 
heroes but would resent being absorbed and lost in the 
creation of a composite ideal. There is an aggressive indi- 
viduality about the stories in which their deeds are recorded 
that protests as vigorously against absorption as did the 
Icelanders themselves against the plans of Harold. 

The external expression of the Icelandic spirit has a like 
significance in the literary development of separate sagas and 
in the loose political organization of the Commonwealth. In 
neither is there shown a recognition of any close national 
unity. 

Frankish. 

The Franks gave indications early in their history that the 
tendency towards individual independence was less powerful 
among them than the other Germanic tendency to subordi- 
nate the individual to some central authority. The inclina- 
tion in this direction was strengthened by contact with the 
people they conquered. The Celts had been responsive to the 
influence of the Roman civilization, and the Franks found 
themselves opposed to a nation which had been built up on 
Roman principles, and which was, for this reason, prepared 
to give a favorable reception to the prevailing political sen- 
timent of the invaders. 

This sentiment was fostered and rapidly developed. 
Clovis, the Frankish leader, by his conversion created a com- 
mon interest between his people and those he had conquered ; 
he united not only the Catholics of the north by appearing 
as the champion of the Church against whatever enemy 
opposed it, but he also united the bands which invaded Gaul 
by contriving the death of their petty kings, and by drawing 
to himself the allegiance of their followers. 

107 



A Study in Epic Development 

In the fusion of these elements he was laying the founda- 
tion for a new nation. It entered upon its existence with the 
Germanic tendency towards centralization established, and 
furthermore intensified by the Roman imperalistic influ- 
ence; under the circumstances, the restraining effect of the 
other Germanic tendency towards individual liberty was 
largely overcome. The natural development was towards 
a monarchy, but this result was forced by Clovis before the 
people were able to receive it, and the unity which the nation 
attained under him was chiefly external; nevertheless, he 
had cultivated the germs of nationality, and they grew 
even during the internal struggles that followed his death. 

Corresponding to this national political development, we 
should expect to find the growth of a national poetry which 
would embody the common sentiment, and give expression 
to the growing national ideal. That progress was made in 
this direction is shown by the fact that an epic cycle began 
to be formed about Clovis. The witnesses to this cycle are 
the traditions which appear later, attached to his name and 
to that of Charlemagne. For example, the story of his 
wooing, as given 1 by Gregory of Tours in the sixth century, 
points to a detailed narrative already in existence among the 
people. In the account of the same circumstances, which is 
given 2 by Fredegar, and is supposed to have been written in 

1 Bk. ii, 28. Gondioc, King of the Burgundians, had four sons, 
Gondebald, Godigisil, Chilperic, and Godomar. Gondebald killed 
his brother Chilperic with the sword, and had his wife thrown into 
the water with a stone fastened to her neck; as to her two daugh- 
ters, they were condemned to exile. The elder, who became a nun, 
was called Chrona, the younger Clotilda. Now as Clovis often sent 
embassies into Burgundy, his messengers found the young princess. 
Seeing that she was beautiful and wise, and knowing that she was 
of royal blood, they spoke of her to Clovis, who at once sent to 
demand her hand from Gondebald. That prince, not daring to 
refuse her to him, gave her to the envoys, who hastened to con- 
duct her to their king. Clovis rejoiced exceedingly at seeing her, 
and made her his wife. 

2 The emissaries of Clovis had heard of Clotilda, but had not 
seen her, so Clovis sent as his messenger to her the Roman Aurelian, 

108 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

the seventh century, there is an elaboration of the story such 
as would naturally result from popular transmission. In 
the Gesta 1 Francorum of the eighth century there are 
further variations, and the introduction of a religious ele- 
ment not found in the other versions. These different 
appearances of the same story point to the existence of epic 
songs in which the people had preserved, yet transformed, 
the narration 2 of the event. 

It is possible that another survival of the Clovis cycle is 
found in the Floovenfi of the twelfth century, where the 
hero is spoken of as the son of Clovis ; he has been banished 
by his father because he has cut off the beard of the proud 
Duke Senechal. The same incident is told in the Gesta 

who should gain access to her in whatever way he could devise. 
Aurelian set out as a beggar, in torn garments, having a wallet upon 
his back, and carrying the ring of Clovis to inspire confidence. 
Having come to Geneva, where Clotilda and her sister practised 
hospitality towards strangers, he was received by them. While 
Clotilda was bathing his feet, he leaned towards her and said in a 
low voice ; 'Lady, I have a great message to give you, if you will 
deign to grant me a private interview.' The princess consented 
to do this, and Aurelian, having been admitted into her presence, 
said to her; 'It is Clovis, king of the Franks, who sent me; he 
wishes, if it is God's will, to share his throne with you, and, that 
you may be sure of his intentions, behold the ring which he sends 
you.' 

Clotilda joyfully received the ring and immediately began to 
plan how she was to be obtained from her uncle Gondebald. When 
her plan was reported to Clovis he was more than ever charmed by 
her readiness of resource. He carried it out in all its details, 
and notwithstanding the interference of Gondebald's wise counselor, 
Aridius, she was safely conducted to the court of Clovis. 

1 Aurelian, in the habit of a beggar, meets Clotilda as she goes 
to mass, and attracts her attention. At the interview which she 
grants him, she receives the message of Clovis with less enthusiasm 
than in the account of Fredegar; she does not think it fitting that 
a Christian should espouse a pagan; nevertheless, she permits him 
to hope, and adds that she commits herself to the will of God. 

' Cf. Rajna, op. cit., pp. 69 fl". 

8 Rajna, op. cit., pp. 132 ff. 



109 



A Study in Epic Development 

Dagoberti of the tenth century, but there the hero is in dis- 
grace with his father, King Clotaire, because he has cut off 
the beard of the Duke Sadregisle. If the alteration of the 
Clotaire of the Gesta Dagoberti to the Clovis of the Floovent 
is of late origin, it nevertheless indicates that Clovis was still 
a central figure about which songs collected; and there is 
also the probability that the author of the Gesta Dagoberti 
transferred to the account of Dagobert an anecdote belong- 
ing originally to the son of Clovis. 1 

That other incidents in the life of Clovis were preserved 
in song is indicated by their reappearing in the life of 
Charlemagne; notably, the stag which pointed out a safe 
fording place for his army, 2 and the walls of the besieged 
city which fell down in answer to his prayer. 2 

In following the material which is shown from the records 
to have been the subject of song from the time of Clovis to 
that of Charlemagne, we see an inclination manifested to 
attach the songs to certain prominent personages. The 
Saxon poet, writing of Charlemagne in the ninth century, 
said : 

Est quoque jam notum; vulgaria carmina magnis 
Laudibus ejus avos et proavos celebrant, 
Pippinos, Carolos, Hludovicos, et Theodricos, 
Et Carlomanos Hlothariosque canunt. 3 

There were songs in which the memories of the Saxon wars 
of Clotaire were preserved. We are told in the Vie de 
Saint Faron* written in the ninth century, the story of the 
embassy sent by the Saxons to Clotaire, of their insolent 
demand, their condemnation, imprisonment, baptism, and 
preservation by Faron; and then of the king's successful 
expedition against the Saxons, of whom he left not one alive 
who was as high as his sword. 

1 Cf. G. Paris, La litter ature francaise au moyen age, p. 27. 

2 Gregory, i. s Bk. v., 115-120. 
4 Cf. Rajna, op. cit., pp. 117 ff. 

no 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

Saint Faron had lived in the seventh century, and we are 
told 1 that this incident had been preserved in popular songs. 

Dagobert, also, the son of Clotaire, was a favorite figure 
in song. Certain incidents of his reign, as given in the 
Gesta Dagoberti, are very like those which found place 
later in the story of the reign of Charlemagne ; the similarity 
in the account of their wars, the correspondence between the 
destruction of Roland and the twelve peers at Roncevaux, 
and the death of Haribert and the ten other Dukes in a pass 
of the Pyrenees, have frequently been pointed out ; further, 
the visitations that accompanied their death may recall the 
name either of Dagobert or of Charlemagne. 2 

There is proof of the existence of a cycle of Charles 
Martel to be found in the legends that surround Charle- 
magne. The recitals that deal with the birth of the latter 
have been shown to present circumstances analogous to 
those attending the birth of Charles Martel, but are appar- 
ently without foundation in the history of Charlemagne. 3 
The accounts 4 of the struggles through which, in all the 
traditions, Charlemagne succeeded to the throne of his 
father, do not properly pertain to him, but to Charles Mar- 
tel. In the legends, also, that deal with the wars against the 
Saracens and the Saxons, it is impossible to separate the 
deeds of the one from the deeds of the other. Further, the 
appearance of Charles Martel in Girart de Ronssillon and in 
Huon d'Auvergne indicates the existence of a cycle in his 
name. 

The earlier heroes of the popular songs were, however, 
eclipsed by the later. With the coming of Charlemagne the 
people found embodied for them their ideal, which had been 
growing and defining itself throughout the reigns of his 
predecessors. He satisfied their pride as a nation by the 

1 Cf. G. Paris, Hist, poetique de Char., p. 47. 

2 G. Paris, ib., 444; cf. also G. Paris, La lit. franc, au moyen age, 
p. 28. 

8 G. Paris, Hist, poetique de Char., pp. 439 ff. 
4 Rajna, op. cit., pp. 199 ff. 



A Study in Epic Development 

extent of his empire and the splendor of his glory. Although 
they were not able to grasp m its completeness the greatness 
of his plan to unite Christian Europe in one political and 
spiritual organization, the vision he had brought before them 
of the great kingdom remained inseparably connected with 
the existence of a centralizing royal power ; it remained, even 
though the weaker hands of his successors were not able 
to uphold his ideal. The people contrasted their enfeebled 
and divided country with the conditions under which they 
had attained such national greatness, and continued in their 
reliance upon the royal power as the centre of the national 
system. 

With the time of Charlemagne we come to the dividing 
place of the nations. It was not only that his successors 
lacked the personality which could dominate the separate 
peoples, but natural affinities within the wide domain were 
asserting themselves more strongly. The weakening quar- 
rels of the imperial family afforded opportunity for the 
development of these affinities, and in due time the result 
was that confederations of people detached themselves from 
one another, and France and Germany came into existence 
as separate national units. 

German. 

Charlemagne had forced the various tribes over which he 
ruled to accept a common religion, but at the same time he 
had had regard for the old Germanic customs, and had 
preserved and honored them. He had left to the local 
authorities great liberty of action, but had maintained a 
close relation between them and the central power which lay 
in his hands. The tribes, however, of which Germany was 
composed when the empire fell apart, had not been subjected 
to the same processes which had assisted in shaping the 
nationality of France. They had been brought into the 
empire without going through the preliminary stages of 
preparation for it which the Franks had experienced through 
contact with the Roman-Celtic civilization. The policy of 

112 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

Charlemagne had not suppressed their individual independ- 
ence, although leading it to subordinate itself to a higher 
authority. 

After his death the ancient families that had stood at the 
head of the tribes again came forward into prominence, and 
in the confusion which subsequently followed the extinction 
of the Carlovingian dynasty, it almost seemed that the 
great dukes would not again acknowledge allegiance to 
any king. But the ideal which Charlemagne had held 
before them was strong enough to prevail, and the warring 
elements were united under Henry, Duke of the Saxons, 
and under the dynasty which he founded the existence of 
Germany as a nation was assured, and a consciousness of 
national life was aroused which could never be wholly lost. 

In this dynasty the royal authority, in the person of Otto 
the Great, reached its highest point; it gathered into its 
hands both the political and the ecclesiastical forces, but it 
was unable to hold these forces in agreement, and when act- 
ing through weaker men than Otto it parted with its preroga- 
tives to both nobles and clergy. As the people assumed 
greater independence, and the tribes began to choose their 
own dukes, the royal authority relied upon the spiritual to 
offset the influence of the nobility. The tendency of the 
spiritual authority was towards ecclesiastical centralization, 
and its influence in shaping the political ideals of the people 
must have been towards political centralization; but the 
influence was interrupted, and the tendency modified; for 
although the end of the Saxon dynasty had found the Empire 
and the Church united, the Frankish dynasty which followed 
found them in conflict; the clergy had decided to free them- 
selves from secular authority. In the ensuing struggle the 
emperor deposed the pope, and the pope excommunicated 
the emperor; the nobles, freed by this excommunication 
from their vows of allegiance to the sovereign power, were 
united for a time with the clergy. The result of the strug- 
gle was the diminution of the royal authority, and the 
strengthening of the ecclesiastical. While this result was 

113 



A Study in Epic Development 

not opposed to the ideal that found expression in central 
authority, it brought about the independence of the nobles, 
which was opposed to the centralization of power. Under 
these conditions Frederick Barbarossa came to the throne. 
The Church had proudly asserted its superiority as the sun 
from which the imperial moon received its light, and the 
masses had been brought, to see in the pope the embodiment 
of their spiritual ideal, although the emperor remained the 
centre of their political system. Both the temporal and the 
ecclesiastical governments relied upon the voluntary support 
of the dukes ; but the dukes were still vassals, at whose head 
was the emperor, and while the absolutism of Otto was no 
longer possible, there was a chance for a strong personality 
to hold together the individual elements, and to strengthen 
the national feeling. 

This was accomplished by Frederick Barbarossa. He was 
not able to carry out in detail his magnificent plans, but his 
influence was towards political unity, and he has continued 
to represent among the people their ideal of German great- 
ness, as is indicated by the old legend according to which 
he is only sleeping at Kyffhauser, and will again come forth, 
when needed, to renew the glory of his ancient empire. 

It was under the impetus of the strong national feeling 
during the Hohenstaufen dynasty that the old songs which 
celebrated the ancient heroes of the people were again 
received with favor. They had retreated before the hostility 
of the Church into the obscure places of society. The con- 
ciliatory attitude which, in the Old Saxon Heliand, made 
Christ a German ruler and the apostles twelve war-thanes, 
was not of long duration. It had soon been replaced by 
the more uncompromising clerical position of Otfrid in the 
Evangelienbuch, where he would not by so much as alliter- 
ative rime awaken a heathen memory. But the songs were 
not lost, although driven back before the inroads of clerical 
literature. 

They did not escape changes incident to their surround- 
ings at the time of their revival into general favor; but these 
changes were of a superficial character, and the poems con- 

114 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

tinue to breathe the spirit of their popular origin. They tell 
of brilliant feasts, of ceremonious visits, of tournaments 
and of going to mass, but underneath these externals the 
survival of the old Germanic ideals is apparent. It 
is a testimony to the natural development of the songs 
that they preserve their fundamental simplicity of thought 
and outline in the same period which shows such artificial 
products as King Rother's giants and Duke Ernst's flat- 
footed men, who used their feet for umbrellas and their 
ears for clothing. The external character of the changes 
introduced finds illustration in the Hagen of the Nibelun- 
genlied, who makes his concession to Christianized society 
when he sends the visiting Burgundians to confession and 
prayer, while a few hours later he kills the child Ortlieb and 
casts his head in his mother's lap, and then rages through 
the hall — no Christian, but a heathen war-god in his love of 
slaughter. 

In the very fact that the Nibelungenlied has been kept 
comparatively free from outside influence, and has been 
left to its natural development among the people, lies the 
reason that it may justly be considered a genuine expression 
of the Germanic spirit of the thirteenth century; and the 
tendencies and ideals which are discernible in this mani- 
festation of the national spirit should correspond with those 
which found embodiment in the form of the contemporary 
political constitution. 

We have seen that the form attained by the government 
under the Hohenstaufen dynasty was the result of tenden- 
cies and influences which had been apparent far back in the 
national existence. The Nibelungenlied was the expression, 
in another form, of the same tendencies and influences. It 
is also distinctly a national development ; it draws its mate- 
rial from various portions of Germany and from various 
periods of her history, as is apparent when the different 
elements are traced to their original homes. 

It would seem that as early as the fifth century the great 
outlines of the legend were in existence. They may be pre- 
sented somewhat as follows : First, the Franks were at that 

115 



A Study in Epic Development 

time celebrating the glorious Siegfried as a national hero. 1 
Secondly, the early historians place the overthrow of the 
Burgundian kingdom about 435, and shortly afterwards 
King Gundicar and his men were massacred by the Huns. 
A remnant, however, took refuge in Savoy, and, in the code 
of laws drawn up by their King Gondebald, in the sixth 
century, the names of his predecessors are given as Gibica, 
Gislahar, Godomar, and Gundahar. 2 Thirdly, in 450, 
Attila, with an immense army of Huns, invaded Gaul, and 
the great leader was found one morning dead in his tent, 
while his newly-married wife wept beside him. 3 In these 
seemingly disconnected incidents is the basis for much of the 
Nibelungen legend. In the Nibelungenlied it is the three 
sons of the Burgundian king Gibich who are betrayed and 
destroyed, with their followers, at the court of the Huns, 
and the names of the kings are Giselher, Gemot, and Gun- 
ther. In the Scandinavian version of the legend the cir- 
cumstances surrounding the death of Atli are similar to 
those historically attributed to Attila. 

It is evident that the events referred to above had created 
a profound impression, and that, having been combined and 
modified in themselves, they were united with the Siegfried 
legend, 4 and started in a more or less connected form on 

x The legends tell how he roused from slumber a maiden sur- 
rounded by a wall of flame which only the bravest man could cross ; 
again, how he was trained during his youth by a wise smith in a 
forest, how he killed a dragon and won a magic treasure; how 
he afterwards fell into the power of the Nibelungen, the former 
possessors of the treasure, was detained among them by enchant- 
ment, and was forced to conquer for one of them a warlike virgin, 
after which he was assassinated. — Cf. Lichtenberger, Le poeme des 
Nibelungen, pp. 80 ff., 393 ff. 

2 Cf. Lichtenberger, p. 74. 
. 3 Attila, the poet sang, had espoused a Burgundian princess, 
Ildico or Hilda, had treacherously killed her brothers Gislahar, 
Godomar and Gundahar, the three sons of Gibica; but Hilda 
avenged the death of her brothers by killing her husband. 

* The Burgundians became, in the songs, the Nibelungen posses- 
sors of Siegfried's treasure and the murderers of Siegfried, and 
then perished in their turn at the hands of Attila. 

116 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

their epical journey. As the poem resulting from the com- 
bination passed from district to district, and from singer to 
singer, it underwent 1 profound changes, and was enriched 
by the introduction of new persons and new motives. 
Irminfrid of Thuringia, and his companion Irinc, Rudiger 
of the Austrian marches, and Dietrich, king of the Ostro- 
goths, Volker and Hagen, Eckewart, Ortwein, and various 
others, localized in the songs of different regions, contribute 
to the national character of the legend. 

A long time before the Nibelungenlied was written down, 
its principal scenes must have been presented in continuous 
form. This fact is attested by the appearance of the legend 
in different sections of the country in versions which vary 
in certain details, but are alike in general character. Almost 
contemporary with the Nibelungenlied the old Sigfridslied 
appeared in southern Germany. It tells of the childhood 
of the horned Sigfrid (Hiirnen Seyfrid), of his leaving his 
father's court, of his apprenticeship to a blacksmith, and of 
his going into the forest where he kills dragons, and makes 
himself invulnerable by bathing in their melted horns. 
Then he sets free the daughter of King Gybich, and by kill- 
ing the dragon which had carried her off gets possession 
of the Nybling treasure. Then the song tells the story of 
his marriage, and of his death at the hands of Hagen. 
Moreover, in northern Germany Saxo Grammaticus 2 tells 
us that the 'well-known treason of Kriemhild against her 
brothers' was sung at the beginning of the twelfth century. 
Again in the thirteenth century the compiler of Thid- 
rekssaga/' according to his own testimony, found his mate- 
rial in the songs chanted by the people. In his version of 
the legend, Siegfried, who is here Sigurd, is brought up in 
a forest by a smith, Mimi ; he possesses marvelous strength, 
and begins his adventures by killing a dragon. The legend 

1 In the transformed legend, Kriemhild plays the part of Attila in 
claiming the Nibelungen treasure and in killing her brothers, while 
her husband, Etzel, becomes a peace-loving king. 

2 Ed. Holder, p. 427. 3 Ths., 392. 

117 



A Study in Epic Development 

differs at first from that in the Nibelungenlied; it gives the 
details of Sigurd's relations with Brynhild before his mar- 
riage with Grimhild, the sister of Gunnar, but the final issue 
of events is the same in both. Again, the Eddie legends 
and the Volsunga Saga, even if the work of artists 1 and 
brought in written form from British soil, in preserving 
practically the same story bear testimony to the connected 
form in which it existed. 

As found in the Nibelungenlied, the story of Siegfried 
forms the first division of the poem. In this division he 
is a brilliant hero, but does not draw around him and 
subordinate to his personality the other characters in the 
poem, as does the hero of the English Beowulf ; Kriemhild, 
Brunhild, Hagen, and the Burgundian kings all play parts 
which are fundamentally necessary to the progress of the 
story. The first division ends with the death of Siegfried, 
and thus the most prominent character is removed. 

In the second division Rudiger, Volker, Dietrich, and 
Dankwart come forward into prominence, and Kreimhild 
and Hagen struggle for mastery. N 

The two portions of the poem are united by the life of 
Kriemhild; — in the first part the beautiful, gentle wife of 
Siegfried, in the second the fierce avenger of his death, but 
in neither the undisputed heroine of the poem. She is, 
nevertheless, the central figure, or rather the loose bond 
which gives to the poem the unity it possesses. 

And the poem does possess a certain unity. It is not that 
of the Beowulf, but it is, on the other hand, far removed 
from the distinctly individualized character of the Icelandic 
saga. The development corresponds rather to that of a 
drama in two acts, each of which contains its own crisis. In 
these separate acts the leading characters move with free- 
dom and attain to the utmost prominence, but in the scheme 
of the whole their energies all contribute to the final catas- 
trophe. 

1 Cf. Bugge, op. cit., pp. 373 ff. ; cf. supra, p. 97. 
118 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

The unity of the Gudrun is of a similar nature. The 
heroine holds together the various elements, but the different 
scenes have their individual heroes. 

The literary form in which the German spirit expressed 
itself corresponds to the form of its political expression. 
The ideal which demanded an organized government, but 
could not tolerate an absorbing imperial centre, was respon- 
sible also for the form of the literary product. The great 
dukes, who acknowledged allegiance to the king, fought to 
maintain their independent sovereignty, but just as Fred- 
erick Barbarossa held together their recognized individual 
powers and directed the leaders through their common 
national interests, so in the same manner Kriemhild in the 
Nibelnngenlied holds together and furnishes the motive for 
the action of the poem. 

French. 
In France the conditions surrounding the political and 
literary developments differed from those existing in Ger- 
many. The French nation was made up of that portion of 
Charlemagne's kingdom in which the monarchic principles 
had been most firmly established. Stubbs says 1 of the 
French that they recognized the royal power as 'their safe- 
guard against disruption,' their 'witness of national iden- 
tity.' But the royal power was not undisputed; the feuda- 
tories contended for a certain degree of individual independ- 
ence. In Germany the contention had been sufficiently vig- 
orous and definite to modify the monarchic idea, and the 
result, politically, had been the building up of an organiza- 
tion with the king at its head, but with a practical independ- 
ence for the members. On the other hand, the French 
barons were contending for a notion which was not clearly 
defined. They were moved by a desire to curtail the power 
of royalty, but never to overthrow it ; they did not conceive 
of establishing for themselves independent political organiza- 
tions. We find that for a time they succeeded in absorbing 

1 Constitutional Hist., p. 3. 

119 



A Study in Epic Development 

the vitality of the royal power, but they carefully preserved 
its nominal suzerainty. They reached no definite political 
results, upon the strength and stability of which they might 
oppose the monarchic tendency. 

In the course of time the feudatories lost their vaguely 
directed energy, and 'the central force gradually gathered 
into itself all the members of the nationality in detail, thus 
concentrating all the powers which in earlier struggles they 
had won from it, and incorporating in itself those very 
forces which the feudatories had imposed as limitations on 
the sovereign power. So its character of nominal suze- 
rainty was exchanged for that of absolute sovereignty.' x 

The literary development of the French nation runs par- 
allel with the political. The Charlemagne cycle is the 
expression in literature of the tendency that made for unity 
in the political life, and as such represents for us the mon- 
archic ideal of the people. 

This cycle so effaced and absorbed the poems that cele- 
brated other kings that the jongleurs eventually knew only 
three royal personages — Charlemagne, his father, and his 
son. 2 The singers changed and developed the central hero 
through successive generations. He had been incontestably 
great in reality, and the lustre of other men was added to 
him until he represented the ideal of the people's aspirations 
as he could not have done had he retained his purely historic 
character. Through his absorption of the glory of the other 
kings he appeared as the composite type of the Christian 
king, the champion of the Christian faith. Moreover, the 
enemies who had opposed the various kings, and whom, in 
the contemporary songs, it had not been necessary to desig- 
nate, were ranged by the jongleurs on the other side as 
Saracens. 

In this assimilation of individuals and of events the songs 
were stripped of their local character. Charlemagne was 
exalted beyond human proportions, but his personality was 

1 Stubbs, ib. t p. 3. 

2 Cf. G. Paris, La lit. franc, au moyen age, p. 35. 

120 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

necessarily restricted to elemental characteristics, and, in 
the narration of the events, details fell away that were not 
of universal significance. As has been said, in the exalta- 
tion of Charlemagne his qualities had been developed beyond 
the possibility of human attainment; he occupied a position 
intermediate between the people and their God. Their ideal 
human hero was the man who was most faithful to this 
royal personage and to the aims for which this personage 
stood. 

In the oldest song which remains of the Charlemagne 
cycle, this typical hero is Roland. He is brave to rashness, 
devoted to his friend, to his king, to his country, and to his 
faith. He is chief of the warriors who surround the throne, 
and whose perfect unity is based upon their common loyalty. 
He is so great that other personages are dwarfed in his 
presence. He is the living, dominating centre of the poem. 
As a hero, he has lost his local attachments, and belongs to 
the nation ; consequently it is his general qualities, those 
which appeal to the people in common, that are emphasized. 
One sees constantly, back of whatever he does, his loyalty 
to king, country, or religion. 

The poem which celebrates his glory produces an impres- 
sion of remarkable simplicity; but this seems to be the result 
rather of concentration upon a definite end than of any cur- 
tailing of incident. It is an illustration of the effect of the 
subordination, and not the elimination, of individuals and 
events. The subordination, which is evident in the form of 
the poem, is the natural expression of the subordination 
of motif to the one dominant motif which concentrates 
in itself all the power of the poem. The outer symmetry is 
an embodiment of the inner oneness of the idea. The poem 
is a literary development corresponding, in its adoption 
of an absorbing hero, to the ideal monarchic constitution of 
the people. 

The political tendency that opposed itself to the monarchic 
development had also its parallel literary expression. It 
finds illustration in the poems that glorify the struggles of 

121 



A Study in Epic Development 

the great barons against royalty and against each other. In 
these poems the vague efforts towards a limited independ- 
ence are celebrated, with the result that the long-drawn-out 
stories of a Renaud de Montauban, an Ogier de Danemark, 
or a Raoul de Cambrai, appear instead of the centralized 
narrative of a Roland. 

The Renaud de Montauban has often been referred to as 
a fitting representative of this kind of narrative. It presents 
to us a combination of but loosely connected traditions. In 
the first part we are introduced to the court of the emperor 
at Paris. He is complaining of the absence of Beuve 
d'Aigremont, the brother of Aimon, the hero's father. 
Aimon, in attempting to justify his brother, draws upon 
himself also the wrath of the emperor, and has to leave 
the court, but he takes with him so large a following that 
the emperor is moved to employ pacific measures. By the 
advice of his peers he sends an embassy to the Duke of 
Aigremont, but the messenger is insolent, and the duke cuts 
off his head. Then again the emperor sends a message, 
this time by his son, Lohier, who goes forth attended by a 
body of knights. They arrive at Aigremont and are 
received, but Lohier is insulting, and in the general melee 
which ensues the greater part of the royal messengers are 
slaughtered. The small remnant which survives carries 
sadly back the body of Lohier to his father. Then the war 
commences between Charlemagne and his rebellious vassal. 
Aimon is engaged on the side of his brother, Beuve d'Aigre- 
mont, but notwithstanding his support, Beuve is finally com- 
pelled to sue for peace, and Charlemagne is counseled by his 
peers to exercise clemency. The war ceases, but the emperor 
does not forget the death of his son, and when, a little later, 
Beuve is assassinated, he leaves the crime unpunished. It 
it at this point, when we are likely to have forgotten the 
name of the hero, that he enters upon the scene. 

Aimon, having been thoroughly reconciled, has brought 
his four sons to Charlemagne's court. They have been 
received with favor, and Renaud has been given, among 

122 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

other things, the famous horse, Bayard. While playing a 
game of chess with the emperor's nephew, Bertholais, 
Renaud commits the indiscretion of winning, and is 
promptly struck in the face by Bertholais. Renaud appeals 
to the emperor, and when he is refused any redress, further 
demands justice for the murder of his uncle Beuve, whom 
he seems to have forgotten less readily than his father has 
done. The immediate result of this appeal is another blow, 
this time from the hand of Charlemagne himself. Renaud 
goes back into the hall, kills Bertholais with the chess-board, 
and retreats with his brothers from the palace, after hav- 
ing filled it with killed and wounded. The emperor 
declares war upon the four sons of Aimon, but Aimon him- 
self remains at court, compelled to abandon his sons, and 
bound by his oath as a vassal to treat them as enemies. 
The story of the war involves an interminable recital of 
adventures and combats, which end finally by a peace con- 
cluded according to conditions almost the same as had pre- 
viously been refused to Renaud. The hero sets out for the 
Holy Land, whence he returns to Cologne to die as a simple 
workman on the cathedral. 

It is a story of the struggles of an individual for rights 
which are never quite clearly determined. Like other 
heroes of the French feudal epic, Renaud is involved in 
alternate wars and reconciliations with the same power, but 
his effort is never for an absolute independence. He always 
recognizes the supremacy of the king, and is profoundly 
remorseful over his necessary resistance. 1 When, through 
the magic of Maugis, 2 the sleeping emperor is brought into 
the power of Renaud and his brothers, they do not slay 
him as their enemy, but fall on their knees before him. 3 
'Charles is my lord,' says Renaud, and he begs for peace. 
He will surrender Montauban, he will give up Bayard, he 
will go to the Holy Sepulchre, he will leave France; and 

1 Cf. G. Paris, Hist, poetique de Charlemagne, pp. 460 ff. 

2 Cf. L. Gautier, Revue des questions historiques, vii, pp. 109 fT. 
8 An interesting parallel is to be found in Samuel I, chap. xxiv. 

123 



A Study in Epic Development 

when the king remains inflexible, the rebel sends him safely 
away, and continues the struggle against him. 

The French feudal hero is always on the defensive; his 
loyalty to the king has been weakened, while he has been 
given no positive impulse towards independence. The 
poem in which his ill-defined conceptions and wavering 
efforts find expression is marked by confusion of form; the 
rambling narrative parallels in lack of unity the anarchic 
political manifestations contemporary with it. 

It was not simply that the poet of the feudal epic was 
submerged in a mass of material. The reason for the differ- 
ence between his production and the Roland lies deeper. 
The singer of the Roland did not lack material; the poem 
shows that he was familiar with other songs which cele- 
brated incidents more or less intimately connected with his 
theme; but the idea which dominated his work was inher- 
ently unifying, and found appropriate expression in unified 
form, while a Renaud de Montauban is an illustration of 
opposite conditions producing opposite results. 

The feudal epic must, from its very nature, possess a local 
character; the interests of the individual are magnified, 
instead of, as in the Roland, the interests of the nation. 
Accordingly it is the Roland which remains the national 
song, representing in the literature the prevailing ideal of 
the people, as the monarchy represents it in the government. 

The result attained both in the literature and in the gov- 
ernment is the logical outgrowth of the development of one 
of the Germanic tendencies. The Franks had looked with 
favor upon the centralization of authority; their inclination 
in this direction was strengthened by external influences ; 
the tendency was allowed a practically uninterrupted develop- 
ment in the French nation, and sufficient time in which to 
mature its product. 

The result is in direct contrast with that to be seen in the 
Icelandic government and saga, where the other Germanic 
tendency also attained maturity. Putting aside for the mo- 
ment any consideration of the harmony which exists between 



124 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

the literary and the political manifestations, and comparing 
the literary product of the one nation with that of the other, 
the fundamental difference between them appears to lie in 
the contracted individuality of the saga as contrasted with 
the universal significance of the Roland. 

In the death scenes of each, where we find the strongest 
situations, the contrast is clear. When Atli, in the Grettir 
Saga, 1 is standing in his doorway, Thorbiorn, suddenly 
appearing, pierces him through with a spear. Atli remarks, 
'Broad spears are about now,' and falls dead on his threshold. 
Further, in the final scenes of Grettir's life at Drangey, we 
have only the spectacle of a brave man meeting his death 
at the hands of personal assailants. 2 The possibility of 
any abstract meaning's being drawn from the situation is 
destroyed by the persistent presentation of things as they 
happen. Even in the death-scenes of the great Njal Saga 
we see the results of private feud, and the characters are 
heroic in their own defence, or because they recognize some 
personal obligation. Njal 3 lay down to die in the burning 
house, because he was an old man and could not avenge his 
sons, and Bergthora lay down by his side because, when 
very young, she had promised that naught should separate 
her and Njal. Skarphedinn, 4 penned in by the burning 
timbers, was sought, when the fire had burned away, from 
the direction whence they had heard his death-song. They 
found him with his legs burned off to the knees, with his 
battle-axe sunk in the timbers before him, and his eyes 
wide open, proud and calm. But it is the same story in all — 
a story of individual bravery exerted because of individual 
need. It is never the story of a bravery which has behind it 
the impelling power of a nation's sentiment, or of a nation's 
need. 

In the Roland, on the other hand, the solitary figure of 
the hero, who sees his companions all dead about him and 

1 p. 133- ' PP. 238 ff. 

3 Njal Saga, ii, pp. 172 ff. * lb., pp. 193 ff. 



125 



A Study in Epic Development 

knows that his own death is near, climbing the hill on the 
Spanish side, that, with sword in hand, he may lie there 
under the trees with his face towards Spain, and thus say 
to Charlemagne and to the army of France, 'II est mort en 
conquerant/ possesses a universal meaning which touches 
the spirits of all ages. The last blast of his horn and the last 
stroke of his sword have a symbolic sense for the people of 
any land and time. 

The independent character of the sagas, and their atten- 
tion to local interests, are in harmony with the form of the 
Icelandic government, where the power and independence 
of the individual were of the first consideration ; the univer- 
sal significance of the Roland, and its devotion to wider 
interests, are in harmony with the centralized form of gov- 
ernment, in which the individual was subordinated. 

The present study has attempted to do nothing more than 
to define the outlines of Germanic ideals as exhibited in lit- 
erature and government, and, by bringing them side by side, 
to show their correspondence during the national develop- 
ment. Starting with the two opposing tendencies which 
appeared among the Germanic people at the time of which 
Tacitus wrote, and following them through the steady pro- 
gress of the race, we see that they vary in their relative 
influence. 

By the migrations of the tribes various separate political 
organizations were established, some of which were transi- 
tory. Corresponding to these organizations are the separate 
songs in which, as in the time of Tacitus, the favorite heroes 
were celebrated ; but our information both as to these gov- 
ernments and literatures is too meagre to allow us to trace 
a clear parallel between them. Among certain of the tribes, 
however, as the Goths 1 and Lombards, 2 where the political 
organization had time to reach a degree of distinctness, 
the songs were beginning to gather into national cycles. 

Where nations were firmly established, and opportunity 
was offered for the maturing of their ideals, the strength 
1 Cf. supra, p. 91. 2 Cf. supra, pp. 94 ff. 

126 



The Germanic Epic and Government 

of one or the other of the early tendencies appears clearly 
in its influence upon the narrative literature and upon the 
political constitution. This is evident from the following 
instances : 

1. In England, while the people were engaged in building 
up a centralized government with a king at its head, and 
with elements subordinated but contributing to the energy of 
the central power, the Beowulf was stopped in its parallel 
growth, imperfectly unified in its construction, but showing 
the tendency of the national spirit towards unity. 1 

2. In Iceland, where the individual independence devel- 
oped at the expense of any true national unity, the sagas 
appeared as distinct individual 2 manifestations. 

3. In Germany, which combined the notion of individual 
freedom with the recognition of a central head, the Nibe- 
lungenlied and the Gudrun were produced, with their equally 
clear regard for the prominence of individual characters 
and their unity based upon a central hero. 3 

4. In France, where the natural tendency of the invaders 
was strengthened by favorable external conditions, the 
impulse was towards absolute monarchy; the Roland, in 
its subordination of incidents and individuals to a dominant 
theme and hero, shows a similar tendency towards centrali- 
zation. 4 

These facts indicate that the same stage in the develop- 
ment of the national spirit which necessitates a certain form 
of government necessitates also in the literary manifesta- 
tions of that spirit a corresponding form. Moreover, in the 
recognition of the successive stages through which the gov- 
ernment passes in its development is the recognition of 
corresponding stages in the development of the literature. 
In each is the evolution into actual form of what is the 
inherent potentiality of the national spirit. 

1 Cf. supra, pp. 100 ff. a Cf. supra, pp. 101 ff. 

3 Cf. supra, pp. 112 ff. 'Cf. supra, pp. 119 ff. 



127 



CHAPTER THREE 

The Greek Epic. 
I. Its Maturity. 

When we turn to a study of the Greek epic, two great 
narrative poems at once confront us, which, in the light of 
the records of other peoples, we can regard only as the 
product of an advanced civilization, as the culmination of 
a process of literary development. This conclusion is 
strengthened, first, by the external evidence of other monu- 
ments which remain as witnesses to the prehistoric condi- 
tions of the Greeks, and, secondly, by the internal evidence 
of the poems themselves. 

First, the external evidence indicates that the advance- 
ment of the Greeks in other directions was sufficient to 
render probable a maturity also in their literary growth. 
Unmistakable testimony to a period of early civilization in 
Aegean lands is disclosed by excavations at various places. 
Under this civilization, known as the Mycenaean, it is appar- 
ent that the people, approximately as early as 1600 B. C., 
had established centres of culture, 1 where they had not only 
received artistic ideas from Asiatic and Egyptian sources, 
but had developed an independence in their artistic con- 
ceptions. 

Among other evidences of this fact is the character of 
the mural architecture, 2 and of the work of the goldsmiths 
and ceramic artists. The Mycenaean art seems to have 

1 Cf. Holm, Hist: of Greece, i, chap, viii ; Curtius, Hist, of Greece, 
i> PP- 153 ff- ; Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, i, pp. 122 ff. 

2 Perrot and Chipiez, Hist, de Vart dans Vantiquitie, vi, chaps, 
iii-xi. 

128 



The Greek Epic 

been indebted in all directions, but 'the indigenous element 
was able to hold its own, and to recast what it took from 
others in an original mold.' 1 The type was of a sufficiently 
distinct nature to make it possible to recognize the diffu- 
sion of Mycenaean products among other peoples, and to 
trace their influence upon the character of the native art with 
which they came in contact. 2 The date of some of the work 
is shown by Mr. Petrie, by means of Mycenaean pottery 
found in Egypt, and Egyptian designs found in Greece, to be 
contemporary with the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty 3 
(about 1500 B. C), and, earlier than these, there are ruder 
but distinctly marked varieties which he finds constantly 
associated with Egyptian pottery older than 2000 B.C. 4 
The independent and original character of the Mycenaean 
culture seems unquestionable. 

That the Greeks had a part in this civilization is indicated 
by various facts : It has been shown that the Myce- 
naean tradition underlies much of the classical Greek 
art; 5 that the splendid vessels and household furnish- 
ings of the Mycenaean time were like to those of 
the Homeric time; that the general plan of the palaces 
at Mycenae and at Tiryns corresponds to that of the 
Homeric palace ; that in armor, weapons, and manner of 
fighting, the Mycenaean warrior resembled the Homeric 
warrior. At many points the Mycenaean civilization is in 
accord with the Homeric. Moreover, it is significant that 
in Greek legends the supremacy of Mycenae was acknowl- 

1 Evans, The Eastern Question in Anthropology, Rep. Brit. Assoc. 
for Adv. of Science, 1896, p. 919. 

2 For extended discussion see Evans, ib., pp. 920 ff. 

3 Petrie, Egyptian Bases of Greek History, Jour. Hell. Studies, 
ii, pp. 271 ff. 

4 Petrie, ib., p. 276. For discussion of the pre-Mycenaean art see 
Blinkenberg, Antiquitcs pmnyccnicnncs, in Memoircs des anti- 
quaircs du nord, 1896; Edgar, Prehistoric Graves at Pelos, Annual 
Brit. School, iii (1896-7), p. 35- 

8 Evans, op. cit., p. 920. 
"Busolt. op. cit.. chap, i, 5. 



129 



A Study in Epic Development 

edged: Agamemnon, the leader of the combined forces, 
was from Mycenae, and 'with him followed most and good- 
liest folk by far; and in their midst himself was clad in 
flashing bronze, all glorious, and was preeminent amid all 
warriors, because he was goodliest and led folk far great- 
est in number.' 1 

The Mycenaean civilization was already old when, in a 
general shifting of the tribes, approximately in the twelfth 
century B. C, it was overthrown by the migration of the 
warlike Dorians into Peloponnesus. 2 As a consequence of 
this migration, the pre-Dorian occupants of the land were 
pressed out beyond the sea to the Asiatic coast, where a 
culture similar to their own seems to have been in exist- 
ence. It is natural to suppose, however, that the character 
of their art would be modified during the long period of war, 
of wandering, and of uniting again into colonies. We find, 
indeed, that the Homeric art, while showing, as has been 
said, its connection with the Mycenaean, shows also that it 
has been adapted to simpler conditions of life. 

If the Homeric epics, in some shape, were known in 
European Greece before the Dorian migration, as is indi- 
cated in the poems by persons, places, and events of Euro- 
pean origin, 3 we have reason to suppose that they had 
attained a form in accord with the conditions of advanced 
culture which surrounded them. They must, even at that 
time, have given evidence of a maturity in artistic concep- 
tion which corresponded to the maturity of the people's 
other artistic products. If they were carried out of Euro- 
pean Greece to the Asiatic shores by the national convulsions 
of the migration period, they were subjected in their new 
home to the same influence which developed the other artistic 
conceptions of the people; and, while conditions were of a 
nature to modify the Mycenaean ideals, the modification 
was in the direction of a more national character, for the 

1 IL, ii, 569-580. 

2 Busolt, op. cit, pp. 86 ff. 

8 Cf. Jebb, Homer, pp. 164-173. 



130 



The Greek Epic 

relation which the Mycenaean art had maintained with the 
Oriental was necessarily interrupted, and the artistic devel- 
opment of the people became more independent. 

Secondly : Evidence of maturity is furnished by the inter- 
nal testimony of the poems themselves. Many of the facts 
referred to in this connection have so frequently been noted 
that their appearance here has much the form of a summary. 

i. The place of the minstrel was an assured one in Ho- 
meric times. 1 He is more in evidence in the Odyssey than in 
the Iliad, but the nature of the poems may account, at least 
in part, for this. He appears, however, in the second book 
of the Iliad, in the person of Thamyris the Thracian, 2 and 
is evidently familiar with contests in song. It was no new 
thing for the minstrel to be celebrating the actions of the 
gods 3 and heroes ; in some cases a cycle of poems was at his 
command. For instance, one song celebrated the quarrel 
between Odysseus and Achilles, 4 another the 'pitiful return' 
of the Achaeans, 5 and yet another how the Greeks fashioned 
the wooden horse, 6 and by means of it wasted Troy. More- 
over, in the last song the minstrel was giving by request a 
certain portion of an extended narrative. These facts are 
indicative of the literary background from which the Ho- 
meric epics arose, and do not belong to the primitive stage of 
culture. 

2. The recurrence in the poems of epithets which have 
evidently become stereotyped through usage is an evidence 
that the characters had long been known, in the popular 
celebration, by certain distinguishing qualities ; 'fleet-footed 
Achilles' and 'crafty Odysseus' are so designated under cir- 
cumstances that do not suggest the qualities expressed in the 
epithets. 

3. The divine world of the Greeks, as pictured in the 
poems, is the home of many foreign gods. 7 They have been 

1 Od., iii, 267-8; viii, 63 ff. "595. 8 Od., viii, 266 ff. 

* Od., viii, 74 ff- ' Od., i, 325 ff. ° Od., viii, 499 ff. 

7 For example, Aphrodite, 'a Phoenician form of the supreme 
goddess of nature,' and Poseidon and Hercules, also of foreign 
origin. — Holm. op. cit., chap, xi. 

131 . 



A Study in Epic Development. 

adapted to the Greek character, and have become a national 
possession, but this result must have been brought about by 
a gradual process ; they represent, in consequence, an 
advanced stage of development. 

4. It has been shown that the language of the poems is not 
the spoken dialect of any one time. It contains many forms 
for even the commonest words, 1 the poet evidently using the 
form of his own day as well as a traditional poetic diction — 
an indication that the Homeric epics attained their present 
shape after a period of long transmission. 

5. The maturity of the poems appears also in the tone of 
reflection which pervades them. 2 They are not simple 
stories of action; the circumstances awaken thought in the 
mind of the singer ; his spirit is not confined by the limits 
of the occasion with which it deals ; he is alive to resem- 
blances between certain characteristics in things that are 
entirely distinct; he does not give expression to a vague 
feeling of resemblance, but to a clear-cut mental process. 
Thus we read that when the people hastened to the council 
from the huts and ships, their coming was a^s that of throng- 
ing bees issuing from some hollow rock; 3 before the speech 
of Agamemnon the assembly 'swayed 4 like high sea-waves 
of the Icarian main,' or as the ears of corn bow down before 
a violent wind. As the people went forth to battle, 5 the daz- 
zling gleam of their armor was like the blaze of a forest 
fire, and the noise of their voices like the cries of feathered 
tribes ; as they awaited battle in the plain their number was 
as the 'leaves and flowers in their season.' Such clear 
recognition of the quality common to objects so dissimilar 
in the main is not the characteristic of new impressions, 
but rather of those upon which the mind has been accus- 
tomed to dwell. Since the simile is itself a development 
from vaguer forms of comparison, 6 the important part which 
it plays in the poems is a testimony to their maturity. 

1 Cf. Jebb, op. cit., p. 136, notes 1 and 2. 

2 Cf. //., ii, 204 ff. : Od., li, 275 ff. 

3 II., ii, 87 ff. 4 //., ii, 144 ff- 'IK », 455 ff- 

fi Cf. G. Buck, The Metaphor. 

132 



The Greek Epic 

6. The home-life of the Greeks, as depicted in the poems, 
gives evidence of a certain degree of refinement. There is 
no opportunity in the Iliad to describe the interior of any 
palace except that of Priam, 1 but as the poem makes little 
difference between the civilization of the Greeks and that of 
the Trojans, the meagre details given may be considered 
as characteristic of the palaces of either. We are told that 
Priam's palace was built of stone, and adorned with polished 
colonnades. That it was a large building is evident from 
the fact that there were fifty rooms for the sons of the king, 
and twelve for the daughters. That the people within the 
palace were able not only to satisfy the necessary demands 
of life, but also to enjoy some of its luxuries, may be 
inferred from a few of the recorded incidents. When Iris 
went with a message to Helen, she found her weaving into 
her tapestry 'the battles of horse-taming Trojans and mail- 
clad Achaians ;'- when the wailing over Hector reached the 
ears of Andromache, she was sitting in an inner chamber, 
embroidering a 'purple web' with 'manifold flowers,' and 
her handmaids were bidden to heat water over the fire that 
Hector 'might have warm washing when he came home out 
of the battle.' 3 The Odyssey furnishes many other details ; 
the brazen walls of the palace of Alcinous 4 which have found 
actual parallel in the roof of the excavated tomb at Orcho- 
menus, 3 the golden and silver hounds which stood on either 
side of the doorway, the golden figures which held the flam- 
ing torches in the hall, the garden with its blossoming fruit- 
trees, vineyards, and trimly-planted beds ; the baths in the 
palace of Menelaus, the golden and silver vessels, the chairs, 
the golden distaff, and the silver basket on castors," furnish 
a picture of luxury which suggests not simply the senseless 
appropriation of foreign splendor, but the transformation 
of crude implements and materials into things of beauty. 
It presents a condition not compatible with the earliest 
phases of civilization. 

'II., vi, 243 ff. - 11. , iii, 120 ff. ; //., xxii, 440 ft. 

* Od., vii. 84-128. ■ Evans, op. cit., p. 917. ' Od., iv, 120-135. 

133 



A Study in Epic Development 

II. Is the Greek Epic Natural or Artificial? 

Since, then, the Homeric epics are not the product of a 
primitive but of an advanced condition of society, the ques- 
tion arises whether or not they may be considered popular 
poems, and, as such, the expression of an artistic tendency 
which is purely natural. As has been said, 1 epic material 
sometimes attains a stage of development where it is difficult 
to determine whether it should be classed under the division 
of artificial or natural ; whether the form in which it appears 
is due to the influence of the conscious individual artist, or 
to that of the popular spirit which acted through many 
minds, and developed unconsciously an embodiment of itself. 
We encounter this difficulty in studying the Homeric epics. 

If they are the work of a conscious artist, by what means 
have they been preserved through all the centuries? For 
even in what are considered by some critics as the later 
portions, the material is older than any other literary monu- 
ment of Greece. 2 There are two possibilities to be con- 
sidered: First, that the artist transmitted them orally, and 
secondly, that he committed them to writing. As to the 
first, when a work of such magnitude as either of the 
Homeric epics is transmitted orally, it is necessarily broken 
into pieces and recited in portions; under such conditions 
is it likely to retain its original plan, unless there is some 
means of preserving it as an unaltered whole? We have 
found 3 that among certain peoples a body of priests or an 
especial society so jealously guards the poets' creations 
that they are preserved orally almost as carefully as if they 
were in written form; but, so far as is known, no such 
organization existed among the Greeks. The people in 
general obtained their knowledge of the Homeric poems 
through the recitation of the wandering rhapsodists, 4 but 

1 Cf. supra, . p. 34. 

2 Cf . Bergk, Griechische Liter aturgeschichte, i, p. 195. 

3 Cf. supra, pp. 61, 66, 71 ft, 

4 Bergk, op. cit., p. 211; Jebb, op. cit., pp. 77ft. 



134 



The Greek Epic 

these rhapsodists appeared as individuals, and were not 
accountable to any body of men for any change or inter- 
polation in the songs recited. 1 

There remains the possibility that the epics were pre- 
served by being written down at the time they were com- 
posed, or shortly after; and the conditions of the early Greek 
civilization are known with sufficient accuracy to warrant 
the statement that this was possible. We know that the 
epics must have existed in approximately their present 
form as early as the seventh or eighth centuries B. C, since 
the Cyclic poems of that date are largely designed to 'intro- 
duce, connect, and complete' the Homeric masterpieces, 2 
and this could not have been the case if the epics had 
not been familiar in a definite, fixed shape. Moreover, the 
preservation of relatively obscure Cyclic poems from the 
eighth century 3 points to the use of writing as the means of 
accounting for their continued existence. 

The earliest extant writing in the present Greek script 
has been preserved on stone, and does not go beyond 
the seventh century, 4 but since the Greek letters are a 
modification of the Phoenician, 5 considerable time must 
have elapsed during which the Greeks were going through 
the process of adapting the Phoenician characters. The 
fact that the letters of this early monument are crudely 
carved proves nothing as to the length of time they had 
been in use. It suggests that the Greeks may have been 
unpractised in writing on stone, but this need not imply 
a like unfamiliarity with the use of softer materials. 6 Such 
a familiarity seems to be recognized in the celebrated pas- 



l Cf. Jebb, op. cit., 113 ft. 

2 Cf. Jebb, op. cit., pp. 151 ft. Lawton, Successors of Homer, pp. 
6 ff. 

3 Cf. Jebb, op. cit., p. in. 

4 Cf. Jebb, op. cit., p. no; Bergk, op. cit., p. 197. 

5 Bergk, op. cit., pp. 185 ff. 

Cf. Bergk, op. cit., pp. 207 ff. 



135 



A Study in Epic Development 

sage of the Iliad 1 in which Bellerophon carries 'tokens of 
woe' 'graved in a folded tablet' to the king of Lycia. 2 

If the Greeks learned the art of writing from the Phoeni- 
cians, they had the opportunity to do so before the close 
of the Mycenaean epoch, for during that period the Phoeni- 
cians were carrying on a lively commerce in the Aegean 
sea, if they had not even then established themselves in 
permanent colonies on its shores and islands. 

Furthermore, there was no question in the mind of 
Herodotus that the art of writing was known in Homeric 
times. He has himself seen three inscriptions in verse 
engraved on some vessels in a temple at Thebes. These 
inscriptions purported to be a contemporary record of 
the gift of the vessels to the temple before the Trojan war. 3 
While Herodotus can not be considered sufficient authority 
for fixing the date of the inscriptions, it is significant that 
he is not deterred from ascribing to them so ancient an 
origin by any idea of the comparative modernness of writ- 
ing. 

Again, recent discoveries 4 have made clear that a system 
of writing entirely distinct from the Phoenician was known 
on Grecian soil during the Mycenaean period. This script 
has been found in the Dictean cave of Zeus, on a libation 
table which is demonstrably of the Mycenaean period. At 
Cnossus also, 'the city of Minos and of Daedalus,' have 
been found many clay tablets, upon which the inscriptions, 
Mr. Evans says, are marked by elegance of execution; 
they show that long before the introduction of the Phoeni- 
cian alphabet 'this indigenous system had attained a most 
elaborate development. The inscriptions are the work of 
practised scribes, following conventional methods and 
arrangements which point to long traditional usage. Yet 

1 //., vi, 168 ff. 

2 Cited by Bergk, op. cit., p. 205; Jebb, of), cit., p. 112. 

3 Thirlwall, Hist, of Greece, i, p. 240. 

4 Evans, Athenaeum, May 19, 1900. 



136 



The Greek Epic 

this development has been arrived at on independent 
lines; it is neither Babylonian nor Egyptian, neither Hittite 
nor Phoenician ; it is the work, on Cretan soil, of Aegean 
people.' 

In addition to these tablets, Mr. Evans 1 has found others 
upon which the inscriptions are partially pictographic 
and partially made up of purely linear characters, and in 
these we have probably a distinct step in the evolution of 
writing from the pre-Mycenaean pictorial signs. 2 

It is not proved by these data that the Homeric epics 
were written down early in their existence, but the testi- 
mony strengthens the possibility that this was the case. 
The fact that they were made known through the recita- 
tions of the rhapsodists is not inconsistent with the possi- 
bility that the rhapsodists may have possessed written 
copies 3 by means of which they kept to the original plan. 

Considering, however, that the rhapsodists were not, so 
far as is known, in any way restrained from interpolating 
other songs, the epics, even if written down, were not 
necessarily removed from the plane of popular poetry. 
The original poems might be so extended and modified 
that, although the plot remained fundamentally the same, 
they might yet in form represent the character of popular 
creations. It is possible that the plan of the earliest artist 
was such as to make his work peculiarly liable to changes 
at the hands of those who transmitted it; it is possible, 
under such circumstances, for the influence of the original 
author to become secondary to the popular influence. 

It seems fair to attempt to estimate the relative strength 
of these two influences by a comparison of the epics with 
other products which are known to have been evolved by the 
national genius. In so far as the general tendency shown in 
the form of the poems can be seen to parallel the tendency 
shown in the other products, it is safe to conclude that as 

1 Evans, ib., June 23, 1900. 

2 See Evans, Jour. Hell. Studies, 14, pp. 270-372. 
3 Cf. Jebb, op. cit., p. 114. 

137 



A Study in Epic Development 

artistic conceptions they have not risen above the popular 
ideals. But the form of the political organization, with 
which we have sought heretofore to parallel that of the epic, 
must in this instance be determined from the testimony of 
the poems themselves ; and since this is the case, we shall 
examine first the tendencies exhibited in the Greek language 
and religion, for in these, as well as in the literature and the 
political life, is an expression of the people's ideal. 

1. At an early epoch, even before their separation from 
the Italicans, 1 we have an exhibition of a sense for form in 
the language of the Greeks. As a distinct people 'their first 
historic deed is the development of the language, and this 
first deed is an artistic one. For, above all its sister-tongues, 
the Greek must be regarded as a work of art, on account of 
the sense prevalent in it for symmetry and perfection of 
sounds, for transparency of form, for law and organization.' 2 

The language, as we first know it, is a bond of union 
which holds various tribes together as a nation, and separates 
them from all other peoples. It is sufficiently one to pre- 
serve a common connection between them, while at the same 
time it is broken up by distinctly marked peculiarities. 
These peculiarities, while not sufficient to destroy the bond 
of unity, are sufficient to make independent dialects. As a 
national expression the language is an exhibition of 'unity in 
variety;' it conforms to general law but preserves an inde- 
pendence in local development ; it is the result of a prevailing 
tendency towards organization, but this tendency has not 
been sufficiently strong to draw together closely the elements 
with which it deals. 3 

2. A similar ideal finds expression in the Greek religion 
as pictured in the Homeric epics. The gods of various 
districts have been brought to Olympus and organized into 
a species of monarchy. They retain their private enmities 

1 Before that time a fixed law for accentuation had been per- 
fected. 

2 Curtius, Hist, of Greece, i, p. 32. 

3 Curtius, ib., pp. 33 ff. 



138 



The Greek Epic 

and friendships, and form a society in which the individuals 
are almost on an equality. The result is that Olympus is the 
home of many contradictory elements, which are, neverthe- 
less, held together in a sort of balance by being subordinated 
to Zeus as a central divinity. This divinity is recognized 
as the highest of the gods, and his will ultimately prevails, 
but he advances by concessions, persuasion, and a nice 
adjusting of opposing powers ; he threatens force only as a 
last resort; he is 'sore-troubled' 1 lest he be 'set at variance' 
with Hera, and she does not scruple to provoke him with 
taunting words, and to upbraid him if he holds himself 
aloof and gives judgment without consulting her. 2 She 
beguiles him to slumber on the heights of Ida while Posei- 
don troubles the Trojans and turns the tide of battle; 3 he 
meets with haughty resistance from Poseidon, who yields, 
but warns him of the Unappeasable wrath' of the gods if he 
spare Troy against their desire. 4 Each of the individual 
gods has his will, and pursues his aims independent of the 
others, or in opposition to them or to the chief of the gods, 
although in the end he brings himself into accord with the 
chief. This recognition of the authority of Zeus does not 
conceal the fact that he is dealing with opposing elements ; 
while he is the central power, presiding over Olympus, his 
interference is not desired, or cordially received, in those 
matters to which individual gods have especially directed 
their attention. His position shows a general correspond- 
ence to that of Agamemnon, leader of the forces of the 
Greeks. 5 

3. Turning to the political constitution of the Greeks as 
outlined in the Iliad, we find that in yet other ways it is 
very similar to the divine constitution of Olympus. The 
form of government is one in which a leader is recognized, 
but his power is far from absolute. The league over which 
he presides is represented as national. The Greek kings 
have assembled that they may avenge an insult offered 

x Il., i, 518 ff. 2 //., i, 541 ff. 3 IL, xiv, 352 ff. 

*//., xv, 205-217. 5 Cf. infra, p. 140. 

139 



A Study in Epic Development 

to one of their number. There is an inward recognition 
on the part of these individual chiefs of the necessity of a 
directing head; the result is that they voluntarily subject 
themselves to the leadership of Agamemnon. But while 
this union bound them to the accomplishment of one par- 
ticular end, their independence in other directions remained 
inviolate. We hear, on the one hand, Odysseus speaking to 
the turbulent Greeks i 1 Tn no wise can we Achaians all be 
kings here. A multitude of masters is no good thing; let 
there be one master, one king, to whom the son of 
crooked-counselling Kronos hath granted it;' this 'master' 
is the commander of the army; it is his province to divide 
the hosts into tribes and clans, that he may know who is 
a coward and who is a brave man f he is the leader in the 
public sacrifices, slaying the victim and offering the prayer ; 3 
he presides over the council of the elders and the public 
assembly ; 4 he receives the lion's share of the spoils f his 
importance is emphasized by many marks of honor. But, 
on the other hand, although leader in the war, he can not 
compel service; Achilles refrains from forcible resistance 
when deprived of his 'meed of honor,' 6 but exercises his 
right of withdrawing from the struggle; he refuses to be 
appeased when Agamemnon makes most generous offers 
of restitution; 7 he does not protest against the 'far ampler 
meed' of Agamemnon, but he is tenaciously mindful of his 
right to 'some small thing,' yet his 'own.' 

The council of nobles has every claim to attention and 
respect; they sit in judgment upon the actions of the leader s 
while bringing their own into a certain conformity to his 
wishes. 

The assembly of the common people expresses approval 
or disapproval of the judgment of the nobles, and the 
freedom with which Thersites 9 chatters on, 'reviling Aga- 

1 II,, ii, 203-206. *//., ii, 362 ff. *IL, ii, 410 ff. ; xix, 250 ft. 

4 Cf. //., ii, 55 ff.; ib., 100 ff. s II., i, 166 ff. fi //.. i. 335 ff- 
1 II, ix, 120 ff. s y/.. i. 275 ff. v //.. ii. 212 ff. 



140 



The Greek Epic 

memnon,' points to a sense of independence among the 
lower classes. He is chastised and silenced by Odysseus, 
but his outspoken upbraidings are not an indication of a 
serf-like condition. 

The political life portrayed in the Odyssey is that which 
prevailed in a particular kingdom. The system of organi- 
zation is the same, however, as that given in the Iliad; there 
is a king or head, a council of nobles, and an assembly of 
common people. If there is any difference in the political 
constitution depicted in the two poems, it lies in a lessen- 
ing of respect shown in the Odyssey for royal authority. 
There is a slight change in the relations of the different 
classes. While the hereditary right of Telemachus is 
acknowledged, it does not seem sufficient to assure him of 
the succession. 1 Moreover, the assembly is more active 
in the Odyssey 2 than in the Iliad. There appears to be a 
tendency towards greater independence on the part both 
of nobles and people. If sufficient explanation for this 
difference lies in the long absence of the king, we have 
then a political condition in the Odyssey similar to that 
in the Iliad; but if not so explained, we have a more 
anarchistic condition presented as the embodiment of the 
people's ideal in political form. In either case, the literary 
expression of that ideal in the Odyssey should not show a 
greater tendency towards unity than is exhibited in the 
plan of the Iliad. 

We have seen that in language, religion, and political 
life, the Greeks showed a regard for organization, but for 
an organization of so general a character that the members 
were but loosely connected. This national characteristic 
should be of value in deciding upon the popular or artificial 
nature of the Homeric epics, since if they are popular 
creations, we can not expect in them a stronger inclination 
towards unity than in the other manifestations of the 

1 Od., i, 387; cf. Gladstone, Horn. Stud., iii. 51; J ebb, op. cit., 
p, 49, note 3. 

2 Od., ii, 240 ff. ; xxiv, 420 ff. 



141 



A Study in Epic Development 

national spirit. In studying the epics to determine the 
character of the unity they exhibit, we find such a difference 
in their structural organization that they must be consid- 
ered separately. 

4. In the Iliad the plot does not aim at the absolute ele- 
vation of a single individual. Achilles is the first and 
greatest of the heroes, but, as the poem stands, he disap- 
pears at the end of the first book, and does not reappear 
until the ninth. Again he enters in the eleventh, and then 
not until the sixteenth, when he practically leads the action 
until the end. Moreover, even in the books where he is 
unmistakably the hero, he does not overshadow by his 
greatness the individuality of the other characters. 

The plan of the poem is elastic; while Achilles sulked in 
his tent he gave liberty to the other warriors to carry on 
their individual struggles with the Trojans; this arrange- 
ment gave to the rhapsodists the opportunity of indulging 
the local pride of their hearers by the celebration of heroes 
from the various kingdoms of Greece. But the incidents 
through which these various heroes are introduced can not 
be said to be essential to the progress of the story, or to 
exist in a close organic relation to it. The plot of the Iliad, 
so far as indicated in the first book, 1 contains the following 
events : Achilles is wronged by Agamemnon and with- 
draws from the struggle against the Trojans; his mother, 
Thetis, appeals to Zeus, who promises to avenge her son by 
giving temporary success to the Trojans ; so far, the plan 
would be satisfied by passing directly from the first to the 
eleventh book. In that book the discomfiture of the Greeks 
is accomplished, and then, going on to the sixteenth, we 
find the unfolding of the motive which draws Achilles back 
into the struggle, and brings about the death of Hector in 
the twenty-second. 

Whether or not these books embrace the material of an 
original Iliad, the Work of an individual author, they show 
a coherent progress to which each element is essential. 

1 Cf. Jebb, op tit., pp. 158 ff. 

142 



The Greek Epic 

Moreover, if the poem was turned over in this form to the 
rhapsodists, it offered abundant opportunity for complica- 
tions and additions, while still preserving the outlines of the 
original structure. 

The detached character of the incidents that intervene 
between the points indicated, as well as the internal evidence 
of language and style, 1 are witnesses to the extension of 
plot and to the plurality of authorship by which the poem 
attained its present form. 

Even a superficial examination of the Iliad as it stands 
reveals an imperfect articulation of its parts. For 
example, 2 the military reverses of the Greeks promised by 
Zeus in the first book, are delayed through the additions of 
the intervening books up to the eighth ; the eighth is clearly 
preliminary to the ninth, where Achilles refuses the peace- 
offering of Agamemnon, since in the eighth is the necessary 
explanation for Agamemnon's conciliatory attitude. But in 
the sixteenth Achilles is ignorant of any offer having been 
made by Agamemnon, for he sends Patroclus 3 into the bat- 
tle, bidding him win honor and fame, that the Greeks may 
give back again 'the fairest maiden, and thereto add splendid 
gifts.' The inference is that books viii and ix were a 
later addition, which came in while the enlargement of the 
poem was in progress. In like manner also, book x, which 
stands in no close relation to what precedes or follows, books 
xii, xiii, xiv and xv, which extend the descriptions of the 
Trojan attack and the Greek defense, serve to delay the 
progress of the action, and have no essential connection with 
the plot. Books xxiii and xxiv, whatever their inher- 
ent interest may be, serve rather to dissipate the strength 
of the action than to concentrate it upon a definite end. One 
is conscious that the wrath of Achilles has reached a climax 
in the 'foul entreatment of noble Hector,' and yet the fact 
that the Grecian army is left encamped about the walls of the 

1 Cf. Jebb, op. cit, p. 161. 

2 Cf. Jebb, op. cit., pp. 159 ff. 
3 II., xvi, 84 ff. 

143 



A Study in Epic Development 

yet unconquered city, produces a sense of incompleteness. 
In the second book 1 Odysseus had reminded the people of 
the portent which Calchas had interpreted for them when 
the ships were gathering in Aulis ; the blood-red snake, 
which had feasted on the eight young sparrows and their 
mother, was the basis for his prophecy that for nine years 
the Greeks should war about Troy, but in the tenth they 
should take the city. The prowess of Achilles seems to fall 
short of the end which we are led to expect, while yet this 
prophecy is unfulfilled. The lengthening of the poem into 
the twenty-fourth book increases the sense of incomplete- 
ness ; for twelve days the battle is delayed while they hold 
funeral for Hector, and watchers are placed about his bar- 
row lest the Greeks make onset before the time, and at this 
point the story is abandoned. The opportunity is open for 
still further extension and dilution ; the effect is negative, 
for the end is only partially attained. 

The result of the introduction of these retarding and 
extending elements is to weaken the framework of the 
poem, so that as it stands it shows a loose bond of unity. 
The influence of many minds upon it is more apparent than 
the influence of one; consequently if there was, as seems 
probable, an original Iliad, planned and wrought out by an 
individual artist from cycles of song well-known to the 
people, its subsequent expansions and extensions have 
given it, so far as concerns its unity, the character of a 
popular poem. Further, we find that the nature of the 
unity is in harmony with that shown in other popular 
creations of the Greeks. 2 

5. Corresponding to the national ideal as depicted in the 
political life of the Odyssey, we should expect to find the 
poem either an equally unified piece of literature with the 
Iliad, or less unified ; but we find that, structurally, it repre- 
sents neither of these conditions. The fusion of the songs 
which enter into it is less apparent than in the Iliad. It has 
undoubtedly brought together separate legends and tradi- 

1 304 ff. 2 Cf. supra, pp. 138 ff. 

144 



The Greek Epic 

tions, and it is at least highly probable 1 that this material 
came from different places and periods; but the poem bears 
the mark of a conscious planning, as the Iliad does not; 
its plot is more complicated, and requires more care in 
the fitting together of its parts than that of the Iliad; if it 
dealt only with the straightforward current of Odysseus' 
adventures, its biographical character would naturally pro- 
mote the unity, but the adventures of Telemachus form a 
parallel action with those of Odysseus. The situation is 
made clear in the first book. We see Odysseus detained 
by Calypso, but longing for his own land; his faithful wife 
at home is besieged by lawless suitors, and his son, heavy- 
hearted, sees his possessions wasted by the unwelcome 
guests. We are introduced into a council of the gods 
where it is decided that the time has arrived when Odysseus 
shall return to his home. Hermes is to be sent to release 
him, while Athene goes to Ithaca to stir up Telemachus to 
search for his father. Then follow 2 the adventures of Tele- 
machus, starting with the mockery of the suitors before the 
assembly of the people, and continuing through his visit 
to the wise Nestor of Pylos, and to Menelaus of Sparta, 
the last-returned of the Greeks, where he learns that his 
father is in Calypso's isle; then Telemachus prepares to 
return to Ithaca. We go back 3 to the council of the gods 
and see Hermes speeding on his errand to Calypso, and the 
adventures of Odysseus begin; they bring him eventually 
to Ithaca, where a little 4 later Telemachus arrives from 
Lacedaemon, and the father and son meet at the dwelling 
of the swineherd Eumaeus, and form a plan for the slaying 
of the suitors. From this time the two actions become 
one, and it progresses directly to the slaughter of the 
suitors and the reunion of Odysseus with his wife and his 
father. There are no loose ends left to the threads of the 
plot; the shades of the suitors are conducted to Hades, 

1 Cf. Kirchoff. Die Homerische Odyssee. 

2 Bks. ii, iii, iv. 3 Bk. v. 4 Bk. xv. 



145 



A Study in Epic Development 

and Athene establishes peace between Odysseus and the 
people of Ithaca. 

In the adventures of Telemachus in search of his father, 
and in the recital of Odysseus at the court of Alcinous, 
there is opportunity for extension within the lines of the 
poem as at present laid down, but the fact that at these 
points the incidents are neither unduly prolonged nor mul- 
tiplied presents a striking contrast with the use that was 
made of like opportunities in the Iliad. The series of 
stories, which might have been continued indefinitely in 
the Odyssey, seems to have been limited by an artistic sense 
of proportion. The chance was there to extend the plot, 
but the resulting poem differs sufficiently from the Iliad to 
imply that a different influence had prevailed in its con- 
struction. The conception of a plot of so intricate a char- 
acter must be sought in the mind of a single individual; 
that its parts remained so perfectly articulated would seem 
to indicate that the influence of the individual had con- 
tinued predominant. This being the case, the Odyssey 
becomes the manifestation of an artist's personal ideal, and 
not the creation of the people as a body. Moreover, the 
popular ideal as it appears in the form of language, religion, 
and government does not show the finish and completeness 
of organization exhibited in the structure of the Odyssey, 
while it does correspond to the unity attained by the Iliad. 
The conclusion reached by this process of comparison is 
that, although both poems lie on the borders of the natural 
and the artificial epic zones, the Iliad belongs more dis- 
tinctly to the former, and the Odyssey to the latter. 

To conclude : The distinctive mark of the epic upon which 
all critics are agreed is its narrative character. Accepting 
this universally conceded quality as a starting-point, we find 
that we must go backward to the beginnings of literature 
in order to find the beginnings of epic, since narrative, lyric, 
and dramatic elements exist together in the earliest recorded 
songs. 

146 



The Greek Epic 

By following the narrative along the line of its develop- 
ment, we find that its form is defined under the influences 
which produce a clearly defined national government; that 
it, as well as the government, shows in its form a realiza- 
tion of the national genius; and that according to the ten- 
dencies of that genius, it appears as prose or verse, in dis- 
sociated sagas or in more or less unified national songs. 

In view of these conclusions, it would seem that what- 
ever may be the arbitrary limits within which the term epic 
is applied, the narrative within those limits is only a phase 
in the development of a literary species, and should be 
studied in its relation both to preceding and to later growth. 



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156 






INDEX 



Abu-Baschar, 14 (note). 
Addison, 24, 26, 27. 
Aeneid, 12, 13, 16, 62 (note). 
Ainus, 36. 

Alboin lays, 94, 95. 
Andamanese, 45, 47, 52, 63. 
Arapaho songs, 72 (note). 
Areois, 64. 
Ariosto, 17, 24, 28. 
Aristophanes, 11 (note). 
Aristotle, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 
18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 33, 

34- 
Australians, 49, 50, 51, 52, 63. 
Averroes, 14 (note). 
Babylonian epic, 39. 
Baegert, 42. 
Beowulf, 32, 33, 9A 93, 9 A, 97, 100, 

106, 118, 127. 
Blackmore, 25. 
Boccaccio, 17. 
Bodmer, 28. 
Boiardo, 17. 

Boileau, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28. 
Breitinger, 28. 
Bridges, 41. 
Bulgarians, 35. 
Bushmen, 44, 47, 52, 63. 
Cado songs, 71 (note). 
Californians, 42, 43. 
Castelvetro, 18, 20, 21, 24. 
Celts, 35, 107. 

Cheyenne songs, 72 (note). 
Christ, 10 1. 
Cintio, 17, 18. 
Cook, 65. 
Cuchullin Saga, 35. 



Dahomans, 78. 

Danes, 97. 

Daniello, 16. 

Dante, 13, 14. 

Dear's Lament, 91. 

Divine Comedy, cf. Dante. 

Dorians, 130. 

Dryden, 25, 27. 

Ed das, 97, 118. 

.EgtV Skallagrimsson, Saga of, 105. 

Eginhard, 92. 

Ekkehard, 91. 

English, 99. 

Eratosthenes, 10. 

Eskimos, 52, 55, 63, 68. 

Evangelienbuch, 114. 

Evans, 136, 137. 

Eyrbyggja Saga, 104, 105. 

Fabricius, 28. 

Finn, 34, 35. 

Finnsburg Lay, 93. 

Floovent, 109. 

Franks, 92, 98, 103, 107. 

Fredegar, 92, 108. 

French, 112, 119. 

Fuegians, 41, 42, 43. 

Garcilaso de la Vega, 80, 81. 

Germans, 112. 

Gesta Dagoberti, no, in. 

Gesta Re gum Francorum, 92, 109. 

Girart de Roussillon, in. 

Goethe, 30. 

Goths, 89, 98, 99, 126. 

Gottsched, 28. 

Greek epics, 39, 128. 

Greeks, 10, 11, 12, 17. 

Gregory of Tours, 92, 108. 



157 



Index 



Grettir Saga, 104 (note), 105, 125. 

Gudrun, 96, 119, 127. 

Habai, 65. 

Hamdismal, 90. 

Harrington, 24. 

Hawaii, 67 (note). 

Heinsius, 28. 

Helgi lays, 97. 

Heliand, 114. 

Herder, 29, 30. 

Hermann, 14 (note). 

Herodotus, 136. 

Hiawatha, 75, 76, 83. 

Hildebrandslied, 91, 96, 100, 106. 

Homer, 12, 23, 24, 28. 

Horace, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 23, 

24, 26. 
Hottentots, 49. 
Huon d'Auvergne, in. 
Icelanders, 101. 

Iliad, 34, 131, 133, i39> 141, J 42, 146. 
Indians, 69, 83. 

Isidore of Seville, 13, 14 (note). 
John of Salisbury, 14 (note). 
Johnson, 27. 
Jonson, 25. 
Jordanes, 89, 90. 
ludith, 101. 
Kalevala, 55 (note). 
Kiowa songs, 71 (note). 
Le Bossu, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28. 
Lepchas, 48. 
Lessing, 29. 

Lombards, 94, 98, 99, 126. 
Longinus, 26. 
Mantinus, 14 (note). 
Mary's hymn of rejoicing, 37 (note) . 
Matavai, 65. 
Mazzoni, 24. 
Melanesians, 60, 64. 
Menander, 11 (note). 
Mexicans, 83. 
Milton, 24, 26, 27, 28. 
Minturno. 18, 20, 28. 



Miriam's song of triumph, 37 

(note). 
Mycenaean civilization, 128, 129, 

130, 136. 
Nagas, 47, 48. 
Navajos, 73. 
Negritos, 43. 
Negroes, 36, 55. 
New Caledonians, 60, 62, 69. 
New Zealanders, 65, 67 (note). 
Nibelungenlied, 32, 92, 96, 115, 116, 

117, 118, 119, 127. 
Nishinams, 43. 
Njals Saga, 106, 125. 
Odyssey, 34, 131, 133, 141, 144, 146. 
Opitz, 28. 
Otfrid, 114. 

Paiute songs, 70 (note). 
Paradise Lost, 24, 28, 33, 62. 
Park, 77. 

Paul the Deacon, 94. 
Persian epic, 39. 
Peruvians, 80. 
Petrie, 129. N 

Philippinos, 43. 
Phoenicians, 135, 136. 
Piccolomini, 14. 
Plato, 10. 
Platov, 34. 
Plautus, 11 (note). 
Plutarch, 10, 15. 
Polynesians, 64. 
Popol Vuh, 85. 
Powers, 43. 
Psalms, 66 (note). 
Rajna, 32. 
Rapin, 21, 22, 24. 
Renaud de Montauban, 122. 
Righ, Lay of, 102 (note). 
Roland, 32, 34, 35, 121, 124, 125, 

126, 127. 
Romans, II, 12. 
Rongs, 48. 
Ronsard, 20, 28. 



158 



Index 



Sahagun, 84. 

Saint-Amant, 20. 

Sandwich Islanders, 65. 

Sanskrit epics, 39. 

Saxo Grammaticus, 90, 93, 97, 117. 

Scaliger, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 28. 

Scandinavians, 101. 

Scherer, 32. 

Schiller, 30, 31. 

Servians, 35, 36. 

Sidney, 24. 

Sigfridslied, 117. 

Sioux songs, 70 (note). 

Sohrab and Rustum, 96. 

Strabo, 10. 

Stubbs, 119. 

Tacitus, 87, 88, 89, 98, 126. 

Tasso, 18, 19, 24. 

Terence, 11 (note). 

Tertullian, 13. 



Thidreskssaga, 117. 

Tongatabo, 65. 

Trissino, 17. 

Ulieta, 65. 

Valla, 14. 

Vandals, 91, 98. 

Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, 20. 

Veddahs, 43, 44. 

Vergil, 16, 23. 

Vida, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22. 

Vie de Saint Far on, no. 

Volsunga Saga, 118. 

Voltaire, 22. 

Wackernagel, 31. 

Waddell, 48. 

W alder e, 91, 93. 

Waltliarius, 91, 93. 

Widsith, 93. 

Winckelmann, 30. 

Wolf, 32. 



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